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October 1 question – What is the most favorite thing you have written, published or not? And why?

It’s October already? Guh. Wasn’t I still trying to process the summer to-do list stress last week? The to-do list that never made it to the got-done list? Like get my body into spooky-season shape? I’m pretty sure that was on the list…

Focus.

Okay.

My most favorite thing I have ever written, published or no?

I’m going to have to go with the fantasy trilogy I started at age 13, but didn’t finish writing until age 23.

It’s…not publishable. There is no amount of polish I can slap on it to make it tolerable. The sheer amount of plot spackle I would  have to apply would be insane. Re-writing it wouldn’t be editing, it would be massive surgery to make a duck look, act and walk like an emu.

There are bits and bobs that can be removed, altered and transplanted into another body, and I have done so, but that’s about all those manuscripts are worth, in an ROI way.

However, I learned things during those ten years of writing off and on.

I learned about the many joys of editing. I learned that research is KEY. Sometimes that research comes from books, sometimes it comes from asking people about their experiences, and sometimes it involves actually doing the thing to “get it.”

I learned that sticking to it is hard. I learned that there are people who will say everything you do is great, and others who say everything you do is crap, and both parties are equally ~useful.~

In the rush to beat the critique commentaries, I  learned to be my own harshest critic.

Now, at nearly 50, I am still learning things.

Things like “perfect isn’t possible, good enough is.”

Or that I actually have to deliberately carve out time in my day to write, and guard it like a rabid theatre rat guarding the most fun prop from EVERYONE ON THE DAMN PRODUCTION BECAUSE THEY WILL INEVITABLY BREAK IT AT THE WORST POSSIBLE TIME; whereas when I was younger, there was a surplus of that resource.

I’ve learned that there is a thing called “voice,” and it’s okay for it to change. I’ve learned that grammar rules are very helpful–to a point. Sometimes you just have to chuck them out the window to write the scene correctly, which is infinitely more important than where that comma should go, according to Chicago, Yale, and Oxford.

I learned it’s impossible to make everyone happy with my work, but if I’m happy, that’s good enough.

Check out the Insecure Writer’s Support Group to see what other writers are thinking about!