Family Fun and Critiques

Yesterday was a family day, nice, easy - well, except for the cooking! :) But it was all good (as was the food). I enjoyed my time with my grandson, son and d-i-l. Then my brother and his wife stopped by for a few minutes. A nice day all together.

And I even managed to get a little work done - a critique of 30 pages for another writer. This one, obviously a beginner. She had the germ of a good story in there somewhere, but the technique needed a little help - okay, to be honest, it needs a lot of help. As in a total rewrite by someone who knows the basics of grammar, spelling, active vs. passive writing, what back story is and where to put it, etc.

I really hate it when I get a story like that to look over because I know how hard it is for some writers to put their stuff out there. How hard it is to actually write something. I try very hard to find something good in every piece I look at, but some are just beyond redemption. Writing in all my comments is difficult for me because I don't want to squelch a fragile ego - but then I think about this business. One thing you simply cannot have as a writer is a fragile ego. If you do, you are definitely doing the wrong thing.

Writers receive rejections, criticisms, bad reviews, etc. all the time. This is one profession where we receive more bad news than good every day. The trick is in not letting it get to you. You can wallow in self-pity for a day, but then you have to get right back out there, writing and submitting. There is a saying that goes something like: if you write, you may never be published, but if you quit, you will definitely never be published. I was at that point when I made my first sale.

So to all you newbies out there, hang in there. Don't let bad crits or rejections get to you. Keep writing. Keep trying. Keep learning the craft. And someday, somewhere, someone will pick up a manuscript of yours and offer you publication. It happens. Honest.
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Birthdays: Robert Southey, Katharine Lee Bates, Jacinto Benavente y Martinez, Mary Rinehart, Zerna Sharp, William Goldman, Walter Dean Myers, Gail Parent

Tips and Teasers: You’re at a party and someone asks you what you write. What do you tell them? Be specific. You don’t just write fiction, you write science fantasy. You don’t just write non-fiction, you specialize in computer security issues.

Thought for the day: “We write for the same reasons we dream – because we cannot not dream, because it is the nature of the human imagination to dream.” – Joyce Carol Oates