I guess we need to write through it every single day, regardless of what happened with yesterday's draft or project. Yesterday's failure should be a learning for today's work. But it's hard when there's no guarantee you'll ever get to anything 'good'. I continue because I love to do it, but how do I make it good?

This is my worst sin. I don't allow myself to fail and always try to write "right". But there is no right or wrong. Even though I know that I continue to fail in failing.

I fell into this trap as well when I was a kid, with drawing. And as an adult, to be honest. It's only in the last few years that i've been able to keep a nice distance. What turned me around was something Bruce Lee said, "be water, my friend. When water fills ac up, it becomes the shape of the cup, when you pour it into a bowl, it becomes the shape of the bowl. Be water, my friend." Basically, getting locked in one style means you have the weaknesses of that style. When you're water, you can improvise on the fly, you can take whatever you're presented and find a way to make it work for you.

I tried to write my own response to this for about an hour. I failed. Make of that what you will.

Hi, I'm the OP. You're right - failing over and over in a vacuum doesn't necessarily improve skills. The critical missing component is good feedback. You can get that from a mentor, a teacher, or a writing group: http://mikesundy.blogspot.com/2014/11/accelerate-your-writing-talent-with.html. There's a concept called "deliberate practice" which is all about finding weak spots and getting targeted feedback to improve those areas: http://expertenough.com/1423/deliberate-practice.

insightfulstory, let me take this up in a blog post. You're asking a good question with a lot of moving parts.

Utkan, that sounds like the influence of 'perfectionism'. There is a place to hold our writing to a high standard, but it's not in story prep, it's not in the first draft, it's not in the 2nd or 3rd, but that final draft, we should get feedback from people who know what they're talking about, and use what we think will improve our story. The main thing, don't let perfectionism get in the way of your creativity.