I remember in my first creative writing class, my instructor told me I started my story in the wrong place. I was like, "No I didn't. It starts on page one."
Having movement on the first page means a rock skipping across the lake, a motorcycle slamming into a semi, or a cockroach skittering along the wall. Unless you're looking to attract some disturbed readers, this movement does not include a turd dropping into the toilet.
The first time my creative writing instructor red-penned Really? on one of my papers next to something fantastical and completely unbelievable, I commented back with Yes, really! and turned it back in hoping for a better grade. I never got the paper back.
Don't just tell me it was painful; show me how painful. This doesn't mean, "It was extremely painful."
If grammatical mistakes make you cringe when you read them in a novel, imagine how they'd make you feel when discovered during mud sex. If you don't know what that is, you are missing the key element to the reader/writer bonding experience.
I once had an instructor tell us that readers like emotional characters, so I ended up with a wimpy, whiney protagonist. I discovered much later, in this context, emotional does not mean readers want your characters to cry, moan, or shamelessly grovel. They want your characters to use their emotions to empower. Their lust will conquer the mistress, their anger will break the antagonist, and their fear will force them to face the evils which threaten to harm them or their loved ones.
I spent years writing and hiding my work so that nobody could copy what would become my masterpieces which would earn me millions. Then I realized writers are supposed to have readers!
I found out the hard way that stream of consciousness writing exercises are not good for a person with a mind like mine and that it is always a good thing to delete your exercises when done.
There's nothing that disturbs me more than when I read my own poetry. That's why I stopped writing poetry.
"Can I send you my manuscript?" in the body of an email is not a query letter.
Those are some of my more embarrassing learning moments in my young writing career. Do you have some to share, even if they are the same and can help me feel better about my faux pas?
I made a lot of mistakes when I first started writing for publication. I was married to every word. I had to learn to give up control to my characters and to accept that I didn't know much about the industry yet. I've learned a lot and know I still have more to learn.
ReplyDeleteI'm just now loving the edit process, so I'm getting to the point where I can get rid of more words than before. I'm getting there!
DeleteMy biggest embarrassment is in regards to something I wrote in high school. I wrote, edited, then queried sure that it would become an awesome novel. The error(s)? It was 64 pages, full of errors, and the writing sucked.
ReplyDeleteWe all make mistakes. Learning from them is the important part.
So true about learning from our mistakes, but give your high school self a bit of a break. I was much older in all of my mistakes. :D
DeleteI try to forget that stuff because it still happens every single day. Fortunately, I'm pretty good at showing and not just telling and I love emotional drama, but my problem is tense issues and commas. I want to add commas all over the place or remove them and twist them into wet noodles so I can throw them against the wall!
ReplyDeleteWow, what a visual! I'm seeing wet noodle commas bouncing off the walls. I want to make some marinara sauce and have me some Commas with meatballs. teehee!
DeleteI have horrible grammar. I can barely write this comment.
ReplyDeleteIn the voice of your doctor, "Take two aspirin and call me in the morning." Horrible grammar has been going around this time of year and one of the common symptoms is you'll find you can barely write comments. This too shall pass.
DeleteMy first novel query was something along the lines of: "I've written a novel about firefighters. Would you like to read it?" Nothing about me, nothing about the novel ... except that it was about firefighters. I've improved since then, a little.
ReplyDeleteOMG, great! I'm glad someone else did something along the same line. Newbies! Gotta love em. :)
DeleteI had a creative writing teacher who used to cross out the first 3-4 paragraphs of everything I wrote for the class. "Delete your intro, Randi," he'd always say. "And *then* you'll have your beginning."
ReplyDeleteI was also one of those superfluous language users. Everything had to be fluffy and pretty sounding. Basically, I could have said many different things in much simpler ways--an agent once told me as such.
I've always prided myself on my poetry. It often gets picked up quickly. But that wasn't always the case. Back in my younger years I submitted a poem to a competition and was 'most certainly a shoe in to win.' Well, one of the judges wrote me back and told me that the last half of my poem was uneven and dissapointing. He recommended reading my poems out loud, which I now do. The end result is much nicer. Oh, what we say and do as babes!
randi, so true too, about the delete the intro. I didn't find out until years later what that meant. :)
DeleteOne of my English Teachers told me that my writing would not win me any honors in business writing if I didn't remove the whips and chains from my writing. So, now I write fiction. lol
I kept all my early writing to myself. Atrociously bad, but it was a start.
ReplyDeleteLong since burned in a camp fire, of course....
I think I have some pieces which are about 15 years old. I dare not go back and read those. :D
DeleteMy first creative writing class felt like an epic fail. My instructor didn't like my genre and would cringe every time I read my stories to the class. He said I was a good writer but that I should try writing something else. The result was that I stopped writing for a couple of years. I did of course eventually pick it up again.
ReplyDeleteGlad you didn't let the negative experience keep you aware much longer. I took a critical analysis writing class in college and my first 4 papers were Ds and Fs. I considered dropping the course and my instructor encouraged me to stay. I continued with bad grades, but on my final paper, I got an A+.
DeleteWhen I got my final grade, it was an A. I couldn't believe it! It just didn't add up. My instructor said that based on my final paper, he knew I'd learned something in his class and that what I'd learned I will keep with me forever and that means an A to him. WOOT. I couldn't believe it.
So, initial failures I think are expected, but I hope you stick with what you like and not be turned off based on your instructor's preference in genre.