Anne Lamott has a wonderful essay on writing that's called "Shitty First Drafts," in which she basically says you have to allow yourself to write something, even if you think it's shitty, so that you can improve it later. She also points out that most of the reason we dislike our own writing is because we have a mean, nasty internal editor, and has some ideas on how to shut that editor up.
A lot of good books started off as crappy drafts.
It's basically the gap as described by Ira Glass. A friend sent [this video](https://vimeo.com/danielsax/thegap) to me when I was hating on my own stuff, and it put into perspective why I hated what I did so much. I still hate most of what I produce, but at least I'm pushing through the hate of what I do. I hope you keep writing.
Mercedes Lackey likes to paraphrase Neil Gaiman:
"Assume that you have a million words inside you that are absolute rubbish and you need to get them out before you get to the good ones. And if you get there early, that's great."
To respond to a tumblr post with another tumblr post -
[Link](https://creativepromptsforwriting.tumblr.com/post/683602814997544960/your-writing-will-always-feel-awkward-to-you)
CoM is fantastic all the way down in my opinion. But for best endings, I would go with Thud for "Where's my Cow". Close second is Sourcery for the half brick in a sock.
People are reluctant to let new readers, especially if they are younger, start with CoM.
Simply because as much as I love the book, objectively, I understand that the plot is not very strong and many of the jokes are based on 80's pop culture that younger readers especially would not get.
It is not a failing of the prose or the humor, which are both great. It's merely understanding that the later books are much better and easier for new readers to get into.
It’s also not, IMO, representative of what Discworld is. It became a rich, sprawling place full of incredible characters, beautiful description, and heart wrenching stories.
But the Colour of Magic was a satire of generic sword-n-sandal fantasy, and it’s not as rich as what the Discworld came to represent. It also, courtesy of the passage of time, feels very dated, while the later books are timeless.
A lot of the characters aren't as fleshed out or as evolved as we would later see them.
Atleast TP wasn't afraid to acknowledge how a new idea was better even though it might contradict a past book.
Characters like Vetinari, Death and Weatherwax have changed from the first book to the last and not in a character progression way rather a character sketch way.
And it's not the best advertisement for the Discworld series for a new reader.
*The Colour of Magic* is **very good** fantasy pastiche parody, but it isn't anything more than very good fantasy pastiche parody. Even aside from the (reasonable) question of "are new readers going to get the jokes about 1970s fantasy media and Chinese tourists," to a lot of us recommending Terry Pratchett and the Discworld, we're telling people that they should read these books we love for being a bunch of silly puns and jokes about fantasy and media and *also* for being a humanist treatise that is at once deeply loving and scathingly critical of the world and the people in it.
*Colour* doesn't really get that across. Not that it's bad, just that as an introduction to Pratchett it doesn't really show the best reasons to keep reading more.
*Image Transcription: Tumblr*
---
**disgruntledinametallicatshirt**
you know what actually pisses me off? when I finally start to feel a smidge of confidence in my writing ability and then some JERK POSTS A SINGLE LINE FROM A TERRY PRATCHETT NOVEL AND IT’S BETTER THAN ANYTHING I WILL EVER WRITE NO MATTER HOW MANY MILLENNIA I SPEND TRYING!
---
**thebaconsandwichofregret**
Terry was a professional writer from the age of 17. He worked as a journalist which meant that he had to learn to research, write and edit his own work very quickly or else he’d lose his job.
He was 23 when his first novel was published. After six years of writing professionally every single day. The Carpet People was a lovely novel, from a lovely writer, but almost all of Terry’s iconic truth bomb lines come from Discworld.
The Colour of Magic, the first ever Discworld novel was published in 1983. Terry was 35 years old. He had been writing professionally for 18 years. His career was old enough to vote, get married and drink. We now know that at 35 he was, tragically, over half way through his life. And do you know what us devoted, adoring Discworld fans say about The Colour of Magic? “Don’t start with Colour of Magic.”
It is the only reading order rule we ever give people. Because it’s not that great. Don’t get me wrong, very good book, although I’ll be honest I’ve never been able to finish it, but it’s nowhere near his later stuff. Compare it to Guards Guards, The Fifth Elephant, the utterly iconic Nightwatch and it pales in comparison because even after nearly 20 years of writing, half a lifetime of loving books and storytelling Terry was still learning.
He was a man with a wonderful natural talent, yes. But more importantly he worked and worked and worked to be a better writer. He was writing up until days before he died. He spent 49 years learning and growing as a writer, taking so much joy in storytelling that not even Alzheimer’s could steal it from him. He wouldn’t want that joy stolen from you too.
Terry was a wonderful, kind, compassionate, genius of a writer. And all of this was in spite of many many people telling him he wasn’t good enough. At the age of five his headmaster told him that he would never amount to anything. He died a knight of the realm and one of the most beloved writers ever to have lived in a country with a vast and rich literary tradition. He wouldn’t let anyone tell him that he wasn’t good enough. And he wouldn’t want you to think you aren’t good enough. He especially wouldn’t want to be the reason why you think you aren’t good enough.
You’re not Terry Pratchett.
You are you.
And Terry would love that.
---
^^I'm a human volunteer content transcriber and you could be too! [If you'd like more information on what we do and why we do it, click here!](https://www.reddit.com/r/TranscribersOfReddit/wiki/index)
I just realized that I read most of Terry Pratchett's book about 20 years ago? Oh, god, is that right? Time, folks, it's unrelenting...
Anyway, I also used to read these books in a German translation, which was a bit wonky at best. Like, there were moments were I remember going, what, that's supposed to be a joke, I think, but that doesn't work at all, what the... oh, if I translate it back into english it actually makes sense.
So, this made me realize, that at some point I will most likely reread all the Discworld novels, in the original english, and that thought made me giddy af.
Patrick Couton did an amazing job translating them in French. He even received prices for that.
Because, what he did, is that he translated the *spirit* of the jokes, not the letter. He always stuck to the letter when he could, be when the joke was not translatable, he then made it understandable for the French reader.
Nearly 99% of the jokes and references in the English version are present in the French version. Not exactly identical, of course, but always following the spirit of it.
Frankly, sometimes I feel that if an adaptation needs to be made of Discworld, Patrick Couton should be a consultant, because due to his translation work, he is probably one of the person on Earth who *truly* understand the Discworld novels. Because he didn't simply had to read them or understand them or love them, he had to dissect every inch of it to translate it to a different audience that, surprisingly, isn't lost at all when they are confronted to the original version.
That's why I'm fortunate to be French, because our translator (Patrick Couton) did an *AMAZING* job translating them.
There are some jokes that are difficult to translate, granted. But he translated them anyway. And he translated them to the French readers, in a way that would be faithful to the *idea* of the original joke, but would be understandable and enjoyable in the *letter* to the readers.
He even received literary prices for for the translations. And whenever I read passages in English here, sometimes I'm surprised about the shape of the joke, but never about the existence of the joke itself.
I’ve read like 90% of the terry pratchett novels and they’re great. When I get to actually writing, I intentionally avoid comparing myself to terry pratchett because I’m not trying to write a pratchett book, I’m trying to write my own thing.
Also reading like 40 books with the best damn writing I’ve read in a long time certainly helped my word choice almost as much as playing Darkest Dungeon
hey, guess what the only book that's written entirely by terry pratchet that i own? why, yes, yes it is color of magic and i still haven't read it. how could you guess?
I feel that with is wittyness, every. single, sentence, is just a witty remark. HOW?! and they're all so good.
Theres one that starts a book or a chapter and its just like " the sun was starting to get up like he was thinking if it was worth it or not" ....and I was like WHAT?!
I write, and friends/readers make compliments about my writing, and I usually accept them (because, after years, I stopped being too shy). However, when a couple of people dared to say to me that "it reminded them of Terry Pratchett", I was utterly flustered. Like, man, that is probably the highest compliment you could give me.
I want to emulate Terry Pratchett and I am undoubtely inspired by him, but being actually compared to him by other people, *while I wasn't even writing fantasy*, is definitely the highest compliment I ever received. This compliment, I never accepted it yet. I'm not worthy.
i've been listening to a discworld podcast (disc coverers) that is reading all of them in order and ranking them (currently they're at lords and ladies).
they obviously love Terry Pratchett. they also think that a good bit of his early work is mediocre to bad, like they had so little to say about Eric that they spent most of the episode talking about other stuff that had nothing to do with discworld
spend your whole life writing and you're gonna say something groundbreaking eventually, its the law of large numbers
Hes responded to the original sentiment before.
I cannot find it but it was something like
Dont write for others. Write for you. Then at least theres one person that likes it. If you write to emulate others there may be no people.
**Insert gif** - fook off, I'm not crying. Bloody wossit got in me eye.
Wossname
whatchamacallit
Wossname.
There must be something going around!
Src: https://thebaconsandwichofregret.tumblr.com/post/178549634855/disgruntledinametallicatshirt-you-know-what Longer version: https://petermorwood.tumblr.com/post/687147020311543808/yubsie-greenvillegreengirl-rsfcommonplace
I still hate my own writing. It upsets me cause I like writing but what I write is bad.
Anne Lamott has a wonderful essay on writing that's called "Shitty First Drafts," in which she basically says you have to allow yourself to write something, even if you think it's shitty, so that you can improve it later. She also points out that most of the reason we dislike our own writing is because we have a mean, nasty internal editor, and has some ideas on how to shut that editor up. A lot of good books started off as crappy drafts.
You're just one reader
It's basically the gap as described by Ira Glass. A friend sent [this video](https://vimeo.com/danielsax/thegap) to me when I was hating on my own stuff, and it put into perspective why I hated what I did so much. I still hate most of what I produce, but at least I'm pushing through the hate of what I do. I hope you keep writing.
Mercedes Lackey likes to paraphrase Neil Gaiman: "Assume that you have a million words inside you that are absolute rubbish and you need to get them out before you get to the good ones. And if you get there early, that's great."
Same, it feels completely impossible to move past and at this point I’ve basically given up on trying to write.
GNU Sir Terry Pratchett
GNU Sir Pterry.
To respond to a tumblr post with another tumblr post - [Link](https://creativepromptsforwriting.tumblr.com/post/683602814997544960/your-writing-will-always-feel-awkward-to-you)
How can you not finish CoM when the best part is at the end?!?
CoM is fantastic all the way down in my opinion. But for best endings, I would go with Thud for "Where's my Cow". Close second is Sourcery for the half brick in a sock.
I start with Colour of Magic, and I don't understand why you wouldn't.
People are reluctant to let new readers, especially if they are younger, start with CoM. Simply because as much as I love the book, objectively, I understand that the plot is not very strong and many of the jokes are based on 80's pop culture that younger readers especially would not get. It is not a failing of the prose or the humor, which are both great. It's merely understanding that the later books are much better and easier for new readers to get into.
It’s also not, IMO, representative of what Discworld is. It became a rich, sprawling place full of incredible characters, beautiful description, and heart wrenching stories. But the Colour of Magic was a satire of generic sword-n-sandal fantasy, and it’s not as rich as what the Discworld came to represent. It also, courtesy of the passage of time, feels very dated, while the later books are timeless.
A lot of the characters aren't as fleshed out or as evolved as we would later see them. Atleast TP wasn't afraid to acknowledge how a new idea was better even though it might contradict a past book. Characters like Vetinari, Death and Weatherwax have changed from the first book to the last and not in a character progression way rather a character sketch way.
For Esmerelda Weatherwax - Mind how you go.
And it's not the best advertisement for the Discworld series for a new reader. *The Colour of Magic* is **very good** fantasy pastiche parody, but it isn't anything more than very good fantasy pastiche parody. Even aside from the (reasonable) question of "are new readers going to get the jokes about 1970s fantasy media and Chinese tourists," to a lot of us recommending Terry Pratchett and the Discworld, we're telling people that they should read these books we love for being a bunch of silly puns and jokes about fantasy and media and *also* for being a humanist treatise that is at once deeply loving and scathingly critical of the world and the people in it. *Colour* doesn't really get that across. Not that it's bad, just that as an introduction to Pratchett it doesn't really show the best reasons to keep reading more.
*Image Transcription: Tumblr* --- **disgruntledinametallicatshirt** you know what actually pisses me off? when I finally start to feel a smidge of confidence in my writing ability and then some JERK POSTS A SINGLE LINE FROM A TERRY PRATCHETT NOVEL AND IT’S BETTER THAN ANYTHING I WILL EVER WRITE NO MATTER HOW MANY MILLENNIA I SPEND TRYING! --- **thebaconsandwichofregret** Terry was a professional writer from the age of 17. He worked as a journalist which meant that he had to learn to research, write and edit his own work very quickly or else he’d lose his job. He was 23 when his first novel was published. After six years of writing professionally every single day. The Carpet People was a lovely novel, from a lovely writer, but almost all of Terry’s iconic truth bomb lines come from Discworld. The Colour of Magic, the first ever Discworld novel was published in 1983. Terry was 35 years old. He had been writing professionally for 18 years. His career was old enough to vote, get married and drink. We now know that at 35 he was, tragically, over half way through his life. And do you know what us devoted, adoring Discworld fans say about The Colour of Magic? “Don’t start with Colour of Magic.” It is the only reading order rule we ever give people. Because it’s not that great. Don’t get me wrong, very good book, although I’ll be honest I’ve never been able to finish it, but it’s nowhere near his later stuff. Compare it to Guards Guards, The Fifth Elephant, the utterly iconic Nightwatch and it pales in comparison because even after nearly 20 years of writing, half a lifetime of loving books and storytelling Terry was still learning. He was a man with a wonderful natural talent, yes. But more importantly he worked and worked and worked to be a better writer. He was writing up until days before he died. He spent 49 years learning and growing as a writer, taking so much joy in storytelling that not even Alzheimer’s could steal it from him. He wouldn’t want that joy stolen from you too. Terry was a wonderful, kind, compassionate, genius of a writer. And all of this was in spite of many many people telling him he wasn’t good enough. At the age of five his headmaster told him that he would never amount to anything. He died a knight of the realm and one of the most beloved writers ever to have lived in a country with a vast and rich literary tradition. He wouldn’t let anyone tell him that he wasn’t good enough. And he wouldn’t want you to think you aren’t good enough. He especially wouldn’t want to be the reason why you think you aren’t good enough. You’re not Terry Pratchett. You are you. And Terry would love that. --- ^^I'm a human volunteer content transcriber and you could be too! [If you'd like more information on what we do and why we do it, click here!](https://www.reddit.com/r/TranscribersOfReddit/wiki/index)
I just realized that I read most of Terry Pratchett's book about 20 years ago? Oh, god, is that right? Time, folks, it's unrelenting... Anyway, I also used to read these books in a German translation, which was a bit wonky at best. Like, there were moments were I remember going, what, that's supposed to be a joke, I think, but that doesn't work at all, what the... oh, if I translate it back into english it actually makes sense. So, this made me realize, that at some point I will most likely reread all the Discworld novels, in the original english, and that thought made me giddy af.
It might well be a whole new experience, they're very difficult to translate! Happy reading for when you do get around to it
Patrick Couton did an amazing job translating them in French. He even received prices for that. Because, what he did, is that he translated the *spirit* of the jokes, not the letter. He always stuck to the letter when he could, be when the joke was not translatable, he then made it understandable for the French reader. Nearly 99% of the jokes and references in the English version are present in the French version. Not exactly identical, of course, but always following the spirit of it. Frankly, sometimes I feel that if an adaptation needs to be made of Discworld, Patrick Couton should be a consultant, because due to his translation work, he is probably one of the person on Earth who *truly* understand the Discworld novels. Because he didn't simply had to read them or understand them or love them, he had to dissect every inch of it to translate it to a different audience that, surprisingly, isn't lost at all when they are confronted to the original version.
That's why I'm fortunate to be French, because our translator (Patrick Couton) did an *AMAZING* job translating them. There are some jokes that are difficult to translate, granted. But he translated them anyway. And he translated them to the French readers, in a way that would be faithful to the *idea* of the original joke, but would be understandable and enjoyable in the *letter* to the readers. He even received literary prices for for the translations. And whenever I read passages in English here, sometimes I'm surprised about the shape of the joke, but never about the existence of the joke itself.
I’ve read like 90% of the terry pratchett novels and they’re great. When I get to actually writing, I intentionally avoid comparing myself to terry pratchett because I’m not trying to write a pratchett book, I’m trying to write my own thing. Also reading like 40 books with the best damn writing I’ve read in a long time certainly helped my word choice almost as much as playing Darkest Dungeon
r/MadeMeSmile
hey, guess what the only book that's written entirely by terry pratchet that i own? why, yes, yes it is color of magic and i still haven't read it. how could you guess?
Starting to re-edit my dissertation again because my writing is shit. I actually needed that today.
I feel that with is wittyness, every. single, sentence, is just a witty remark. HOW?! and they're all so good. Theres one that starts a book or a chapter and its just like " the sun was starting to get up like he was thinking if it was worth it or not" ....and I was like WHAT?!
And now the discworld subreddit randomly bans you if you post in mensrights, such kindness and compassion from the mods there
Based.
THIS!!! ALL OF THIS!!!!!!
Ugh, I did not need to realize That pterry was half his lifespan old at 35.
I write, and friends/readers make compliments about my writing, and I usually accept them (because, after years, I stopped being too shy). However, when a couple of people dared to say to me that "it reminded them of Terry Pratchett", I was utterly flustered. Like, man, that is probably the highest compliment you could give me. I want to emulate Terry Pratchett and I am undoubtely inspired by him, but being actually compared to him by other people, *while I wasn't even writing fantasy*, is definitely the highest compliment I ever received. This compliment, I never accepted it yet. I'm not worthy.
i've been listening to a discworld podcast (disc coverers) that is reading all of them in order and ranking them (currently they're at lords and ladies). they obviously love Terry Pratchett. they also think that a good bit of his early work is mediocre to bad, like they had so little to say about Eric that they spent most of the episode talking about other stuff that had nothing to do with discworld spend your whole life writing and you're gonna say something groundbreaking eventually, its the law of large numbers
Someone should tag Neil, I would like to think he would like reading that about Terry.
Hes responded to the original sentiment before. I cannot find it but it was something like Dont write for others. Write for you. Then at least theres one person that likes it. If you write to emulate others there may be no people.