Ms. Fix-It and Ms. Forget-It

There are times when quantity is at least as important as quality in learning an art. ~Lawrence Watt-Evans

Hmm. So is he saying that the more we produce the better our skill becomes?

When I first began writing, I wrote 5 100K stories in three months. LOL. Of course none of those are what I consider fit for viewing eyes. Fireplace kindling. And I'm not sure my "craft" improved from one story to the next because I wrote them so quickly.

I then spend the next two years revising ms #1 and #2. If I could venture a reasonable guess, I'd say I revised ms #1 (a Victorian) probably 15 times. And I know it still needs another revision before I can consider querying it.

But ms #3 has only been revised 4 times at most. The last revision took me 20 months, and I almost totally rewrote the last 140 pages in 3 weeks. Sometimes deadlines are a good thing.

Going back to what Mr. Watt-Evans said, I'd have to say I agree. The more I write, the more I edit my work, the better it becomes. I know eventually we all have to stop editing and submit because we can overedit, but sometimes I wonder if so many of my fellow unpubbies just don't edit enough. Is that why the number of contest finaling entries verses the number of sold entries is so vast?

And maybe if a story isn't working and causing us too much vexation, then the best thing to do is stick it under the bed and move on to a new story and another and another until we reach a point that either we know that vexing story is unsalvageable or that we see how we can fix it.

Craft verses Gift

"I find it both fascinating and disconcerting when I discover yet another person who believes that writing can't be taught. Frankly, I don't understand this point of view." -Elizabeth George in her book, "Write Away."

Amen, sister.

I believe that some people are just born great writers. But most of us are learned writers. We have to be taught how to write well.

Yet again and again and again, I meet writers who think they are naturally gifted to write well so they don't think they need to read a single article or book on writing or attend a single writing conference. And they often don't feel the need for a critique group.

A beta reader is great, but someone who will tell you that you don't need a comma between a compound predicate is so much more valuable.

Yet these same writers enter contests expecting to win or final, only to trash their judges' comments because those judges' aren't "published so they obviously don't know how to recognize good writing."

Oh puh-leeze.

I wish I could say I'm a gifted writer.

Alas, I'm merely a learned writer who is still learning...and who direly needs to change her daughter's poopy diaper.