This is one of my favourite pieces of advice to writers - particularly you mid-project people.
Don’t compare yourself to the best writing you can find, compare yourself to the worst.
Brilliant writing can be inspiring (of course!) but it can also be horribly intimidating. Bad writing, on the other hand, can be extremely motivating. If you’ve ever read or watched something and thought – Good grief, I could do better than that mouldering pile of garbage – you know exactly what I mean.
But there's another reason to read the truly terrible. You can learn an awful lot from it, hone your analytical skills and apply those insights to your own work.
So, in the spirit of Halloween, summon your inner Dr Frankenstein and let’s get dissecting.
1. Dissect it
Find a short story, scene or passage that doesn't work. Now ask WHY.
Is the dialogue clunky? Are the characters unbelievable? Is the prose or description too wordy? Is it riddled with cliches? Does the plot have holes that are perhaps better described as craters?
How does the story make you feel? And, crucially, if it doesn’t make you feel – WHY NOT?
Try to work out why it isn’t working for you.
2. Look for Signs of Life
Even the worst writing surely has something going for it.
Perhaps there's a great premise, a cool title, an interesting setting or character or a terrific twist that's been badly handled.
Ask yourself: If this was yours – what would you save? What has potential? And what needs to go?
3. Stitch It Back Together
Once you have some thoughts about what needs to improve. Take a short piece of that bad writing and rewrite it. Keep the basic idea but improve the execution.
Then compare the two versions. What did you change? More importantly, WHY does your version work better?
Pay attention to what you edited out and added in.
4. Check Your Own Monster
Take everything you've identified in that dreadful writing and turn your attention to your own work.
Does it suffer from any of the flaws or mistakes you identified?
5. Bring Your Story Back to Life
Finally, choose a scene in your own work that you instinctively feel isn’t quite doing its job.
Pop it on the slab and repeat the dissecting exercise as above. There’s no need to be vicious – consider it exploration by a curious writer rather than unleashing your inner critic.
Dissect it. Figure out what's working and what's not. Keep the good bits, replace the dodgy ones and stitch the whole thing back together.
Then let’s see if this monster can walk.
If you like the cut of this jib – you might also enjoy this.