Random Thoughts

First thing every morning as I start writing I tear off yesterday’s Zen quote from my Zen Calendar. I always get behind on the weekends so when I read yesterday’s quote I had to laugh. Yesterday’s quote: I yam what I yam, and that’s all that I yam. —Popeye. Isn’t that just wonderful? Popeye was very wise. We are what we are, but it’s enough. Better than enough, it’s perfect.

That goes for our writing, too. We are enough as we are. Oh, we keep trying to improve our writing. In fact, we work hard at improving, but when we get that rejection, that tough critique we don’t take it personal. We take it as a guide to improve. But our best tool for good writing is being ourselves. Being passionate and true to our writing.

I’m on the last week of the poetry workshop I’ve been working on all month. This week we’re working on the natural world and awakening. It’s a subject that I can get into, because I’ve been writing about nature for many years. Still, the challenge is there.

And that is the very thing I have enjoyed and embraced most about both workshops I’ve taken this year. They’ve made me stretch my writing muscles. And I’ve gotten great feedback.

Melanie Faith does a great job critiquing my work. None of the feeling of being shredded by her suggestions, as I have felt before. So, it came as no surprise that she wrote a wonderful article for the November The Writer magazine titled The Art of The Critique. The article is concise and especially helpful for those put in the position to critique without know exactly how to do it. You should check it out.

I’ve always held back in critiquing RWA contests or other’s poems feeling thinking I’m not ‘good’ enough to do it and because I know how tender a writer can feel, I haven’t wanted to hurt anyone. And yet, above anything I know how important that analyzes is to improve the writing. You know, who am I to say what is good and what isn’t. But with this as a guide, I think I could, at least, give some helpful suggestions without hurting anyone’s feelings.

I’m real good at encouraging other writers but I’ve never felt I was someone who should be telling anyone how to do things. With this as my guide, I feel I could, at least, ask good questions, give good suggestions and I could do it in a constructive way. Anyone doing critiques should read this article.