Writing Is Linear I recently read a piece about James Patterson in which he discussed his writing past and present. One comment struck me in particular when he pronounced some of his earliest work as not very good and indeed called one of the books "terrible."
We can learn from this. As writers we tend to get down on ourselves, well maybe some of us do, as being bad or boring or not measuring up to others. I know James Patterson now turns out a lot of books sharing his name with other authors, but back in the day he wrote all by himself. And for him to knock some of that work shows that writing is linear, that writers get better book to book by learning from their mistakes and shortcomings and, hopefully by bolstering their confidence. Also, as writers we do a lot of reading which in turn improves our own work.
Bottom line. I keep writing and like what I am writing and tell myself that I am getting better. Just as not everyone will like every movie produced, so too not everyone will like every book written. Enjoy your writing, accept it as work but don't let it become a chore, and strive to do better. The book orders can take care of themselves.
