Writing and Structure

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Hi all,

I've been meaning to get back into writing after a few months of not writing again. I've always shared my work with those who're interested in reading, mostly educators, and they've all told me my work's pretty good. I don't believe that at all. When I look at my work, I see it as lacking feeling, and the biggest issue I see is a mess of structure and flow. That's my biggest problem, and I've tried outlines, I've tried going back and revising my work ( when written without outlines, I can't ever get myself to write anything when I'm telling myself to do things a certain way ) and only really fix the issue on a minuscule level.

I get so distracted by other things I can't ever focus on streamlining and redirecting flow, also pacing but that's another thing for another day.

Does anyone have any tips on this? The only tips I've gotten are to keep outlines and like idea maps but I get so invested in those I end up adding more and more and more things.

Every writer is his or her own worst critic. I suspect your work isn't as bad as you think.
But here's an idea: as a member of my writer's group has stated, there are planners, then there are pantsers. Planners write an outline and pre-plan everything, whereas pantsers write by the seat of their pants without much planning (I tend to be a pantser). Perhaps just letting yourself go and write as ideas pop into your head might be something to try, as free association might be truer and purer as an outlet for your creative impulses. Just a thought.

^^^