7/27/2012
Writing Class
I take class after class after class all centered around one thing - you guessed it - writing. And still I can't seem to quite get off the dime (or the sofa) and do something with all I've learned. Why? Oh that horrible "R" word keeps popping up in my head - rejection. My self-confidence is fragile and if I don't put myself out there, then I can't be or will be rejected. Almost sounds like a plan - except for that one little thing - I'll never actually see my name in print. Unless signatures on checks or credit card slips count!
I do all my assignments in record time and receive positive feedback from my instructors who constantly encourage me to send query letters out to magazines and yet I do nothing. Nothing is easy, nothing takes no effort and requires, interestingly enough, nothing from me. Of course with that attitude guess what I'm going to receive in return - you guessed it - nothing.
I wonder if I will just sit on my creative ideas forever. Jeff printed out for me the first three segments of Wilma last night. It's a staggering amount of paper but I must read it in print in order to see where the logic of the story sags. I have found or developed a new antagonist for Wilma and that revised portion of the story I like very much. Does it all make sense? Well probably not yet, but that's where cold proof reading comes in - and after all, it's fiction so how much sense does it have to make?
Is Wilma the next great American novel? I doubt it, but I know this with 100% certainty - if I do NOTHING - then I'm guaranteed to never know. I can't send out a query for Wilma when she is unfinished because, heaven forbid I were to get a nibble and then get such a case of writer's block that I can't finish the book - talk about pressure to perform.
So here I sit surrounded by paper, stories, thoughts and ideas. All I have to do is put blank ink on white paper, how hard can that be? Apparently, harder than you and I think.
So back to the writing tablet for me. Have a great Friday.
P
Hmm. Seems to me that this blog is putting your words into print and being able to see them black on white.
ReplyDeleteNow that the ice has been broken, go ahead and try to publish on dead trees. If you try and succeed that will be great. If you don't succeed, you'll still have succeeded to my way of thinking.
Thanks for the kudos.
ReplyDelete