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2012 writing goals
Dec. 30th, 2011 02:25 pmAfter long thought, I have come up with my writing goal for 2012.
Yes, goal as in singular.
LISTEN.
To books that mean something to me, to figure out why. To people and why they say and do what they do. To critiquers. To writers and agents and editors and readers with insight. And to myself. Because writing is more than well-crafted grammar and nice metaphors. For a book to mean something and to stick with a reader, it needs to be unique. It needs to be a story only that author could write. I've wondered before how such a very British-specific story as Harry Potter could be so widely loved, and the answer I came up with applies to Harry and every other meaningful story out there: Sometimes to be universal, you have to be specific. That story you write has to have something unique and personal in it that could only come from you. And I think that sometimes, in the attempt to improve writing craft and become more marketable and whatever else, it's possible to lose that spark. I don't want to ignore the many voices of wisdom around me, but I also think I need to blow on my own spark just a bit, too.
It all comes down to what Meg Murray said in A Wrinkle in Time: "What have I got that IT doesn't have?"
Yes, goal as in singular.
LISTEN.
To books that mean something to me, to figure out why. To people and why they say and do what they do. To critiquers. To writers and agents and editors and readers with insight. And to myself. Because writing is more than well-crafted grammar and nice metaphors. For a book to mean something and to stick with a reader, it needs to be unique. It needs to be a story only that author could write. I've wondered before how such a very British-specific story as Harry Potter could be so widely loved, and the answer I came up with applies to Harry and every other meaningful story out there: Sometimes to be universal, you have to be specific. That story you write has to have something unique and personal in it that could only come from you. And I think that sometimes, in the attempt to improve writing craft and become more marketable and whatever else, it's possible to lose that spark. I don't want to ignore the many voices of wisdom around me, but I also think I need to blow on my own spark just a bit, too.
It all comes down to what Meg Murray said in A Wrinkle in Time: "What have I got that IT doesn't have?"
