August books: 2/6 (The Tea Master and the Detective)
Well, squiders. The last few weeks have been rough, as we talked about on…Wednesday? But at least I’m mostly keeping up with my morning pages, so I’m getting some writing done. Right?
RIGHT??
Maybe not, apparently.
Like I suspect many writers, I am always looking to learn new things. I take occasional classes, watch webinars, read blogs, and subscribe to perhaps too many writing newsletters. I sign up for challenges and try new things and all of that madness.
ANYWAY one of the writing newsletters I subscribe to is run by Hope Clark, a mystery writer, and is called FundsForWriters. She talks about her own writing and what she’s up to, hosts guest posts from other writers, and lists contests, grants, and places you can submit your writing.
A few weeks ago she had a link to get a free copy of the Story Grid, which sounds familiar. Maybe I looked at it before? Maybe I got it confused with Story Engineering, which is the most useful writing book I’ve ever read.
(I’ve done some research because I definitely took pictures of the book in question I was thinking about, and yes, I’ve already read The Story Grid once. Ha. It was a LOT of work but it did seem like some of the process would be useful.
I read the book four years ago and have not implemented any of it.)
Anyway, I clicked the link for the free copy, so of course now I am on the newsletter list, because this is how these things go.
And the very first email he sent out was like, 5 Things That Will Make You a Worse Writer or something along those lines.
And do you know what #3 or so was?
WRITING MORE.
His point was that if you are writing just to write without getting feedback and trying to fix the things you’re doing wrong, you’re just going to ingrain the things you are doing wrong as habit.
Which, yes, fair. I can see that.
So now I’m super paranoid about the morning pages. “What terrible habits am I ingraining?” I ask myself every time I break my notebook open. “Am I training myself to be boring? Predictable?”
Which, like, I’ve been writing for a long time. In general I know what my weaknesses are, and also that those weaknesses are almost all fixable in the revision phase. (The pacing was a major issue, and I have taken steps to fix that at this point.) I am published and my stuff is generally well-received. I am a competent writer by an objective standpoint.
But, still, in some corner of my mind, there’s a voice whispering, “You currently are competent, but maybe you’re training yourself to be worse.”
Anything’s possible, I suppose.
But I do find myself in a weird place. I like doing the morning pages. And in this time of upheaval, it’s nice getting some writing done even if it’s nothing serious. (I’m over halfway through the notebook, which is a bit exciting in of itself. I’ve never filled up a notebook before. I may read through it, when it’s full, and see if there’s anything worth finishing and polishing.) But now there is that voice in the back of my head, wondering if I’m doing more damage than good.
And, of course, logically, the point of said email was to sell whatever class or book or what have you, and adding that seed of doubt is supposed to get you to buy whatever it is. I know that.
Maybe it’s just because things are so weird in general that it’s taken up permanent residence in my head.
Sigh.
Anyway, squiders, how are you?
