Hey! Maybe you're being too hard on yourself? Maybe you could share something you've written for your blog either here in the forum - or via a PM and get some outside perspective?
I had a real problem a few years back not being able to finish anything I was writing. I basically hated
everything I was doing. And the more I revised, the worse it seemed to get. Talk about a major erosion of self confidence. I was about one half step short of being completely "blocked" as the saying goes.
Finally, my GF asked to see some of my screeds. Turns out she amost always thought my earliest drafts were very well-written and 'read' just fine. But she also noticed that the more I futzed with something, the more it seemed to get awkward, start hedging, and ultimately lose its focus. Kinda like pie dough. You have to knead it to get a nice flaky crust. But if you knead it too much, it becomes greasy and tough. So the real secret to making a terrific pie is knowing when to stop kneading the dough.
As far as 'style' went, she felt my absolute best articles always seemed to read like they were personal letters to a very smart friend who I was excited about sharing something with. Don't know if you'd call that a 'writing style'
per se, but that's pretty much how I write everything today. Most of the people who say they read my stuff seem to like it just fine.
Eventually, I learned the technique that worked best for me was to write fairly quickly
and restrict the number of back-to-back edits and rewrites to a few as humanly possible. Basically, once the grammar and spelling were correct I'd call it a day after a quick buff & shine. Then I'd let it sit for a few days (or weeks) and give it a reread just in case I missed something, totally blew the structure, thought of something clever to add - or completely changed my mind about what I had previously written. Don't laugh! That last one has happened to me on more than one occasion.
Anyway, it seems I can write once again now that I don't try to write a doctoral dissertation or compose a literary masterpiece every time I launch
WriteMonkey or MSWord.
Writing quickly, in a personal letter style, with minimal revisions seemed to work the charm for me.
Seeking perfection can easily become a trap for many well meaning people who are only trying to accomplish some good in their lifetime.
Old
I Ching saying: When a single larger vessel is not at hand for making sacrifice to the gods - two smaller vessels will do.
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