There are a bunch more thoughts on objective vs. subjective "good" and different ways of writing being good in a comment I wrote above to xparrot, so ... see there for more. XD But you know, we've talked about how reading difficult books and watching twisty, complex media helps you develop critical thinking skills that are also useful in real life, and I really believe that it does!
One thing doesn't need to be good in every category. In fact, I don't think a single work, no matter how amazing, can be good in all categories. There will always be some aspect in which it isn't as good as something else... so I just don't generally compare things like that.
THIS. Honestly, I think this is why I don't feel even slightly guilty about being in fandoms for shows that are not good at ... women, say, or race, or religion, or whatever. I mean, I will try to caveat this when I'm reccing it to someone for whom I think that'd be a problem, but literally everything has some areas in which it's just Not Good, even the very best things! And because I do look at craft, and I read a lot of thinky, pull-stuff-apart kind of meta, I'm generally aware of that even for things I'm not into, so I don't feel any particular need to be hyper-aware of it for things that I am into aside from being aware enough of it to try not to replicate its specific issues in my own writing.
I haven't had a major crisis of faith in this craft the way you've had, I just have had a series of minor crises.
In some sense I think writing is basically just a series of minor crises. XDDD
Those conversations we had a few years ago about not being able to "let go" and really feel things, and how it can make it impossible to write if you aren't able to give yourself up emotionally to the writing -- that was such a game-changer for me, in how I think about writing and how I work through my own cases of writer's block. I've been a lot more unapologetic about just writing feelsy fic since then. In the words of 2000s-era fandom, THE MUSE DEMANDS IT. xD
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One thing doesn't need to be good in every category. In fact, I don't think a single work, no matter how amazing, can be good in all categories. There will always be some aspect in which it isn't as good as something else... so I just don't generally compare things like that.
THIS. Honestly, I think this is why I don't feel even slightly guilty about being in fandoms for shows that are not good at ... women, say, or race, or religion, or whatever. I mean, I will try to caveat this when I'm reccing it to someone for whom I think that'd be a problem, but literally everything has some areas in which it's just Not Good, even the very best things! And because I do look at craft, and I read a lot of thinky, pull-stuff-apart kind of meta, I'm generally aware of that even for things I'm not into, so I don't feel any particular need to be hyper-aware of it for things that I am into aside from being aware enough of it to try not to replicate its specific issues in my own writing.
I haven't had a major crisis of faith in this craft the way you've had, I just have had a series of minor crises.
In some sense I think writing is basically just a series of minor crises. XDDD
Those conversations we had a few years ago about not being able to "let go" and really feel things, and how it can make it impossible to write if you aren't able to give yourself up emotionally to the writing -- that was such a game-changer for me, in how I think about writing and how I work through my own cases of writer's block. I've been a lot more unapologetic about just writing feelsy fic since then. In the words of 2000s-era fandom, THE MUSE DEMANDS IT. xD