In some harsher critiques on YWS, you'll find a lot of references to navel gazing. So what is this?
Well, technically, it's staring at your belly button. That's the very technical version. So what does it actually mean?
Navel-gazing, to put it politely, means that you are too wrapped into yourself to see beyond the greater world. For example, if I write poetry that talks about me, me me, without talking about anything else, that is navel-gazing. If I write a story about me, me, me, then that would be navel-gazing. And mind you, this isn't just a piece that includes you, you, you, all the time. The subject never deviates from you! So it just continues and goes on and on until you want to strangle a writer.
This, believe it or not, is a bad thing.
So, what can you do to solve this? The obvious answer is "grow up" but that may seem slightly condescending to everyone. So, instead, you have to look at things in a more mature manner. Writing all day and all night, is sure to make you go insane, especially if that's all you do. Believe me... I've been in that place before. I wanted to become a great novelist and I would write the greatest piece in the world! I have since given that dream up. But living indoors for no real reason is probably a bad thing. Meet people, listen, go out and live.
You see, writers can be very self-absorbed, but if you realize that there is more than just you through living life, then your writing is bound to be better.
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