I just finished a short story for my Writers' Guild annual short story contest. The exercise taught me at least one important thing: I'd rather write several blog posts than one short story. Blogging is like chatting; short story writing is like doing a term paper. I had to use words that show the reader what'is happening( instead of telling them;) I have to look in dictionaries, thesauruses (is that a word? See--in a short story I'd have to look it up. Here, I just depend on you to know what I mean,) and the Chicago Manual of Style. I'm exhausted.
When I started working as a technical writer twelve or thirteen years ago, I attended a professional tech writer meeting and was stricken with panic at the thought I might become one of those people I met at the refreshment table debating the proper use of em dashes. (Didn't happen. Turns out I like em dashes, but not enough to debate about them.) I thought fiction writing would be different. But no--today, my critique group had a heated discussion about Point of View in writing. Heated! About grammaresque stuff! And I was right in the middle of it. Damn. I should just get my personalized GRMR GEEK license plate now.
The cool thing about fiction writing is that I get to create my world and characters. The uncool thing is that I have to juggle a lot of grammatical variables to make sure my lovely visions translate into readers' brains. Nothing brings me back to reality faster than having one of my fellow writers say, "I wasn't quite sure what was happening in this paragraph...." What? Why not? It was really clear in my mind!
Cool or uncool, it is true that since I became a writer, I haven't been able to read a sentence without trying to improve it. I almost can't force myself to use text-message-speak. Someone has to physically remove my hands from the keyboard to keep me from staying up all night, editing and re-editing my work. One wise writer told me, "At some point, you just have to say 'It's finished,' and send it off." Wise words, those.
I do my best with blog entries, but they remain easier to part with. One click of a button, and my piece is "out there," published in cyberspace. Easier to deal with at first, but more painful later when I see my errors in the finished product.
You're about to write a smug comment asking why I write if it's so painful for me. OK, I'll go with that. I write because... I can't help myself! There, I said it. I'm obsessed. I love the feeling of words falling into place to form a rippling paragraph of beauty. I love forming the pictures from my head onto paper that then transmits them other brains.
If there is a 12-step program for obsessed writers, please don't tell me about it.
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3 comments:
What's an em dash?
On the subject of editing endlessly, someone recently told me a story of an instructor who would tell her students, "It's perfect enough." :)
On a related note, you might want to look into http://www.scribd.com/. Cool place to publish your stuff!
What's an em dash?
On the subject of editing endlessly, someone recently told me a story of an instructor who would tell her students, "It's perfect enough." :)
On a related note, you might want to look into http://www.scribd.com/. Cool place to publish your stuff!
Hahaha! "What's an em dash" is exactly what I asked myself that night--I couldn't remember if it's the long one or the short one--but I figured it out. (And there's your em dash, right there!
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