It's in the retelling of stories that the improvement comes. I compare it to preparing a lens for a telescope. For months, all you're doing is grinding it into the generalized shape of what a lens should be. Once the rough-cut bowl is formed, it's not going to reflect an image. In writing you can have your skeleton, you're structure, but it doesn't reflect. The reflection comes in the polish. What a person will see, what a person will feel, comes in the polish. When you finish polishing your writing, it forms the image you're trying to create." By Donald Perry, free lance writer and author of Above the Jungle Floor
I got some pretty hard news today, a story I submitted got rejected. I got lots of feedback about what was wrong with it. All the comments were true- even if they hurt- but the editor made valid points.
I walked around in a depressed sort of funk, but after being yelled at (thanks Dixie) I realized that either I could give up or learn from this rejection and improve my craft. And after some thought, that is what the goal of this blog is after all. Telling a story, for me is the easy part (okay not the slaving over the computer for months and writing 100K words- but the getting the idea.) I love the spark of a new idea, but it's the grinding and the sanding and polishing (you know the WORK) that turns a whimsical idea in a writer's brain into a well crafted story.
The idea in my head needs (and quite frankly deserves) to reflect a greater image that can touch another person. That is my goal.
What's yours?
Now your talking. Thats what I expect to hear. That's my goal too. I can do it and so can you.
ReplyDeleteWe can do it together! hmm, now, just to figure out how...
ReplyDeleteHopefully you will step away for tomorrow and relax and enjoy your family. Bask in the knowledge your a writer honing your skills for that big one.
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