Stronger
November 13, 2001
7:49 a.m.
I was taking a shower the other day, when I was struck by a single three-word sentence. I don't want to actually write the sentence here, because ... well, because. But it told me something important about the book. It was one of those things that was obvious, yet hidden like a banana or a fish hook in on of those seek and finds that kids magazines publish. Now I can't help but see how perfect it is. I love it when that happens.   Yes, I'm into the book again. This writing stuff, you know, it's hard work. Part of it is that my standards, I think, have risen. I expect more of myself than I did. I'm not saying I had bad standards before, but that I had needed to improve different things. My primary goals for improvement in the past couple years have been focused on story structure. That's what I needed--you know? How do I best present the events of this story to convey it properly? I think I'm better at this than I was. Now I need something different. So now I'm pushing the bar higher--or maybe this is like being in zero-g. Maybe there is no "higher" so much as there is "stronger." (I originally typed in "better" instead of "stronger," but "better" is not the right word there. "Stronger," I think, is.) Everyone starts at different places. Everyone learns things at a different pace. Lisa, Brigid, and I drove up to see Lisa Silverthorne this weekend. It was nice to see her again, and I did my utmost to drain her of every ounce of learning she received at her VP workshop. Somewhere along the way, I came to realize that I wasn't working as hard as I used to. This actually came as a shock. The idea made me mad. But that very next moment my anger was replaced by a sense of understanding, and that understanding made me feel absolutely wonderful. It's not that I'm not working as often. And it's not that I'm not creating as many words. I'm working in those areas about as hard as I can ever remember working. In fact, the mere act of working so hard in these areas helped shroud the essence of the issue I'm talking about today. What I realized is that I've gotten lazy about improving my work. I'm relying on the clichés. I'm falling back on things I know, and relying on structure and whatever natural talent I have to get me by. The good news here is that I'm pretty good at structure, and I have at least a little talent (trying not to be too ... uh ... well, you know). I think that part of the problem is that I didn't know what was next on the agenda. I didn't know what to attempt to learn about the craft next--at least, I wasn't able to state it literally. In my mind, I think I knew. I think I knew it in July when we went on vacation and I wrote a difficult short story there. I think I knew it when I finished my second draft of this book. I think I understood it fully after reading Donald Maass's book. Still, I don't know if I could state it properly until this past weekend after talking to Lisa. I'm not working in the right direct hard enough. I wish I could describe it better. I wish I could state directly what you should do to figure this out, and describe how merely understanding this can let you see the path out. If I could, I suppose I would get terribly rich. All I know how to say, though, is that I'm in this really comfortable space right now. I like this story. I'm glad I'm working on it again. Have a great day.  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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