I've always taken my writing seriously, ever since 9th grade, and Mrs. Van Atta said I wrote good poetry. When I got to high school and 10th grade, I wanted to join the school newspaper, which, unfortunately, was on the way out. I don't remember the details now -- maybe Sue S. does -- but somehow Mrs. Longanecker was convinced to be our advisor, and the Wildcat Weekly was back. I started writing articles and discovered something.
I like being edited.
I like being edited, because it was the only way I could learn what I did wrong.
To my eyes, my writing is perfect. The newer it is, the more perfect it is. I enoy reading my own stories. But, practically, I know my writing is not perfect, and I need improvement.
I am not a perfectionist; far from it. I don't search for exactly the right word to fit into a story. I don't take forever to write. I do subscribe to Dean Wesley Smith's theory that a story should be written once, but not necessarily re-written. I clean my stories up, I try to catch all of the dangling plot points, but I'm not obsessive about it.
Which, 'round about, brings me back to Smashwords.com and fanfiction.net. I want feedback. I want the ego-boo, of course, but I want feedback. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect reviews, but the feedback I get here is how many people look at my stories. I guess it gives me verification that I actually might be doing something right. One of my stories on fanfiction.net has over 1200 hits. A story I just put up last week at Smashwords.com for free already has 145 downloads. Makes me feel good.
But does it mean my storytelling is good? I don't know.
You tell me.
No comments:
Post a Comment