I want to confess to you lovely people some recent convictions of mine (involving writing). I figure, if I know this stuff about myself, you might as well know too. Perfect logic.
I've been writing for a long time. Let's not even count all the stuff I wrote before I was 12. Because around age 12 I went from being a happy-go-lucky-sometimes writer to the insane psycho freak of writing. You may have seen pics here of how I've been keeping a journal every day since I was 12. Then there are all the poems and stories and attempted plays that just drenched the paper. And from the ages of 14 - 20 I wrote 5 "novels."
I call them "novels" because they are only drafts, and pretty lousy ones at that. And despite the fact that I am often insecure about my writing, I got to thinking that I must be pretty great. That because I've been writing nonstop since early childhood, I understand writing better. That because I've never taken any classes I must be a natural.* Please, don't cringe. I am already cringing for you.
Thankfully, God was kind enough to send me a nice humbling exercise. Revision. My first real honest-to-badness revisions began and I learned many things.
- Drafting is a tiny portion of writing a novel. What I thought I knew so well was only one flake in the snowstorm.
- Talent doesn't really mean anything. What matters is working my butt off and being passionate enough about a story to work my butt off.
- I have a lot to learn.
So yeah, thanks for reading and keeping me on track. If you have anything to share in the comments section, please feel free to spill.
Back to revisions...
*A little disclaimer here. Obviously my human thoughts and emotions on this topic are much more complex/subconscious than I can write here. This is only a small pinch of my psyche.
