Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Am I a typical 30 Something woman?


I fancy myself a writer.  A Jane Austen fantasy of beautifully stringing words together like a  priceless pearl necklace, but I often wonder if it is just that: Fantasy. 

I have the creative energy and story in my mind, however, no matter how I start it, it ends up "sounding"  incredibly juvenile to my ears.
      And that's it, isn't it?  My inner 13 year old writing wounded poetry never grew up enough to get over it.  Or am I self-indulgent to believe that what I have to say would be important enough to warrant a pre-release frenzy or a literary award or how about the New York Times' Best-Seller's List?
     Oh WAIT.....I haven't even mentioned actually having my story published in the first place!  How's that for self-indulgent??
     My manuscript would have to be spectacular in order to pass over the stacks of thousands of other hopefuls, let alone receiving any of my ideal scenarios!
     What if after all that, it still ends up on a spinning rack in the back corner of the public library to die a slow and painful death?  I see those books, I've felt sorry for those books, I've read some of them and felt even sorrier for having done so.  They are there for bloody good reason....they were not worthy of the paper they were printed on, nor worthy enough to be kept by the person who bought it in the first place because they judged it by the cover, and the exceptional blurbs on the back.  Which for some of them was the best part of the whole book!!  Most of them on that spinning rack are horrible!!
     So I read through those books, some where so bad I couldn't finish them, and I wondered, as I do now, What in the world was so spectacular about it that got it published in the first place???
    I know that writing a novel is not easy by a long shot, however, if I feel that I could write a novel only half as bad as the number that I have read, would that not make me a shoe-in?
    I know that my Jane Austen stringing words together beautifully fantasy obviously does not come within the same league as "half as bad as..." But you know a more realistic approach to accomplishing a daunting task will make it easier to actually accomplishing said task!!   And besides good editing can always make a story better!!

So maybe I should be dusting off my stack of started stories and work with one of the versions that seems best.  Hey, it probably isn't as bad as I think it is....Right?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think its a good idea! dust those starters off, grab some coffee on a Sunday afternoon and send the kids with the Hubs. Do something for YOU! Don't let the power of BUT drag you down. (Oh as a side note- i was painting a picture in my head as I read. the novels that were on the rack. I started reminiscing about Gordon Lightfoot and his "if you could read my mind" song. - now the song is stuck in Handsomes head)

Unknown said...

I had to add a video of that song...just for you and Handsome..lol.

Anonymous said...

awesome! and yes, he is still humming the song. I subscribed via rss. love to hear your thoughts as they bloom :)