Thursday, September 04, 2008

Always Pushing Me To Do Better

Just a quick note to my fellow Wyrdsmiths.

I may not always agree with you about how a piece is broken or why or how to fix it, but I do know that if I'm getting flack in a particular section it means I need to do something. It may involve going down a very different road than the one you suggest, or putting in a new scene in a completely different place to better illuminate the problem scene, or even just deleting a few sentences that give the wrong impression, but I do always work on it. And, ultimately, what you do with your comments--whether I welcome them or grumble or look put upon--is force me to be a better writer. I appreciate it even when you irritate me.

Thank you.

5 comments:

tate hallaway said...

Very cryptic, Kelly, but, yeah, I started working on my revisions from last Thursday last night too.

Kelly McCullough said...

LOL, Tate.

Not meant to be cryptic so much as to save me the time of writing an enormous post that wouldn't make any sense to anybody who missed the meeting. And to note that we get better by always striving, and that sometimes we get motivated to strive by a well placed boot. I generally try to push myself pretty hard and having people around who won't let me coast helps.

Bill Henry said...

"Was it something I said...?!"

Kelly McCullough said...

Bill, no, it's all good. I was just working yesterday and I had to do some very fiddly scene surgery to drop in a new piece and revise chunks both before and after to fit the new piece and I was really having to push myself to make it all work like it should. It was actually a quite enjoyable challenge on one level while simultaneously being quite irritating in terms of ironing out the tiny changes it made all up and down the line. I could feel myself stretching to make it work, and that felt really good even though I hadn't wanted to mess about with that particular bit any more. Since it's something I wouldn't have done if I hadn't gotten a bunch of comment on needing something there. I appreciated the push and though I ought to say so.

Eleanor said...

I realize that I underpraise when I comment on writing. When I was a kid and I brought home a report card with five As and a B, my mother would say, "What's this about the B?" I am afraid I learned from her.

I figure I am trying to make the manuscript better, so why focus on what works? That's a given. But praise is good. I like it. Other people must.