There's no whining in pyramid building...
(The photograph is from Tulum in Mexico. You can see the ruins in the upper right corner.)
So I watched Juno on Thursday night. Terrific movie. Great characterization. I loved the layers.
As often happens when I enjoys another writer's work, I took a step back from my own work-in-progress (WIP) to evaluate it. Editing and story analysis are probably not the best activities to undertake while in the midst of trying to complete a first draft, but I have a kind of haphazard writing process anyway.
Naturally, a WIP is not as polished as a feature film, and I found myself pouting over my draft. Is this working? If it's not working, should I attempt to fix it today or should I just dive into the stack of books I bought this week to read? And why is writing so hard anyway? I should take up something new. Something easier...like eating Tic Tacs or doing 10-piece jigsaw puzzles for toddlers.
That was about the time that I thought about the megalithic, astrologically aligned pyramids in ancient Egypt. Now, there was a project meant to stand for all time. They lugged massive blocks of rock and placed them with astounding precision. Clearly, the difficulty of the work didn't deter them. And look what they have to show for it.
So, like Tom Hanks' character says in A League of Their Own: "The hard is what makes it great."
We struggle to do things that are terribly difficult because they are worth doing and...
There's no crying in baseball.
There's no whining in pyramid building.
There's no pouting in writing.
Comments
I think it's good to pout over our drafts. I think that's how we take things to the next level. At least that's what I'm telling myself right now. As you know, I do a lot of teeth gnashing during my writing. :)
The hardest thing I've ever done that I've really enjoyed? Being a mom. It's HARD! But I love it!
I think for the people who are good parents, parenting is the toughest thing in the world... because they care so much about getting it right.
I know you're a GREAT mom, so it's all worth it. :)
As usual, we're on the same page.
I suspect becoming a better writer is a never-ending journey. My first novel comes out next year, but there are still so many skills that I'm honing.
I want to be one of those authors who gets better with each book. I think Jim Butcher and Tami Hoag are better now than when they started (and they were good from the start). Nancy, too. She took her writing to new and great places with Virgin.
It's great to see authors strive for excellence every time they come out. Success can be a bit of a trap. Complacency the enemy. So I guess what I'm saying is that it's hard now, and it's going to stay hard. LOL
The hard is what makes it great...The hard is what makes it great...The hard is what makes it great....
Though it was really frustrating at times I think the worst thing in the world for my development as a writer would have been someone buying my first or even second or third book.
The time I spent as a short story writer and the way the novel failures kept forcing me to improve has made a huge difference in the quality of my work and helped to build into my psyche the idea that not only do I constantly have to strive to improve and that's a good thing, but also that I have that ability to keep improving if I don't get complacent.