I spent most of yesterday finishing A Walk Between Heaven and Earth and making notes in my notebook. To say that I found it ‘unputdownable’ is an understatement 🙂
There are so many interesting passages and inspiring ideas, too many to mention, but the one that really struck a cord was when Holzer talked about ‘the right way’……
She says that too often we focus on learning the techniques of writing, that this overshadows the writing itself. She goes on to say that “It is hard to get excited about writing, when 90% of what comes to mind is not good enough, or not right somehow.”
Is this the rut I’ve got myself into?
Am i no longer content to just write, for writings sake? I’m constantly trying to improve, do things right, learn the rules…..punctuation, grammar, syntax, nouns, adjectives…..*deep sigh* It’s hard work….. 😦
But, is it still exciting? Does having the constant pressure of having a ‘right way’ and a ‘wrong way’ take away the pleasure? And, if that is indeed the case, whats the answer? Quit my creative writing courses and just write for me? Give up any ideas I have of publication?
No, sorry, I don’t agree with her. I’m enjoying learning, I want to improve my writing. To do that I need to study and I need to do things the ‘right way’. I’ve always been fascinated by learning, eager for knowledge about everything around me.
Yes, having a ‘right way’ and a ‘wrong way’ leads to self criticism and self doubt…… But don’t we need that to strive to be better? Wanting to be good at something and succeed isn’t a bad thing is it? 😉
The View Outside 
Well done for finishing the book. I tend to agree with you on the learning front – I love learning and improving myself too, so I wouldn’t stop that if I were you. It’s the only way that we can be better writers and feel confident in what we are writing. Having said all that, I have learnt this year that writing and editing are two separate processes (I think I blogged about that a few months ago). So I don’t believe that there’s anything wrong with writing for ‘writings sake’; writing without correcting (just to get the message or story down) and then in the editing process, you can use your knowledge to correct the punctuation, grammar and move sections around.
Hope that helps! Have a good day Sandra 🙂
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Thanks Sandra 🙂
Yeah, I do wait until the editing stage to add my punctuation etc….theres always so much thats wrong lol. But….I do think that sometimes I can get too hung up on trying to do things the right way, rather than just enjoying what I’m doing 😉
Xxx
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