I’ve written about how Cory Doctorow consciously separates how he feels about his writing from the writing itself:
“My writing epiphany was there was no relation to the way I felt about the words I was writing and their objective quality. … You can’t tell what’s good and what’s bad while you’re writing it. … Once you start thinking about what you’re writing, you lose the ability to stop writing it.”
This is good advice. If you’re too critical of your work as you create it, you’ll probably never make anything. The first draft of everything kind of sucks! That’s why many writers call their first draft a “zero draft” or a “vomit draft.” Your first job is to make your art exist. You can make it good later.
R.F. Kuang shares a similar point, but also says that good writing usually feels hard. Be skeptical of when it feels easy!
R.F. Kuang said:
“When it feels hard, when you feel like you’re actually building the foundations from scratch rather than hastily sketching in something that is loading automatically, I think that’s where the most impactful, interesting writing comes from.”
She references the book “Several Short Sentences About Writing” by Verlyn Klinkenborg, saying there’s no relationship between how good writing feels in the moment and how good the product is. Or if there is a relationship — be suspicious of easy writing, because it might not be good yet.
So don’t worry about the first draft. It should probably feel hard. It’s like Charles Portis says, “Writing is hard — it’s a form of punishment in school, and rightfully so.”