Somebody Gets It
So, some time ago, I handed my latest story effort ever to a particular reader that is well-respected by me. We both got busy, and well over a month went by between then and now. During this time, I fretted (when I had the chance to think too much about it). My thoughts went something like this:
Tempermental Insecure Artist Voice In Head:
Shit, she hates it. She doesn't know what to say. We put her in the position of having to tell us she hates it, or having to lie. It doesn't make any sense, after all. IIt sucks. It's slow, uneven, cookie-cutter, self-aggrandizing (whatever that means, Artist Voice), pompous...
Me Voice (Just as tempermental, but ever so slightly less melodramatic):
She's just busy.
TAV:
No, we just suck.
Me Voice:
First of all, even if the story sucked, she would find something nice to tell us. She finds good stuff even in total tripe. She likes our work, anyway, she's seen it before, and we had even less of a clue what we were doing then.
TAV:
You think we have a clue now?
Anyway, it went on like that off and on for weeks. But finally we got together so that she could tell me what she thought. And... she liked it. For real. She had thoughts on a few fixer-uppers (which are always appreciated), and a lot of little editing bits (word cuts, tense problems, the like). But overall, she liked it. More than that, she got it. She GOT it!
I'm sure I don't need to tell you how thrilling it is when you're trying to do something particular with a piece of writing, and it succeeds. Especially with someone who you know is a good reader.
This is an especially good thing because I was thinking about using this particular story in my MFA application work samples, along with another story, an old stand-by. Now I know that, with a little tweaking, it's a good choice.
A good ending to a good day.
Doesn't everyone have at least one voice in their head?
Tempermental Insecure Artist Voice In Head:
Shit, she hates it. She doesn't know what to say. We put her in the position of having to tell us she hates it, or having to lie. It doesn't make any sense, after all. IIt sucks. It's slow, uneven, cookie-cutter, self-aggrandizing (whatever that means, Artist Voice), pompous...
Me Voice (Just as tempermental, but ever so slightly less melodramatic):
She's just busy.
TAV:
No, we just suck.
Me Voice:
First of all, even if the story sucked, she would find something nice to tell us. She finds good stuff even in total tripe. She likes our work, anyway, she's seen it before, and we had even less of a clue what we were doing then.
TAV:
You think we have a clue now?
Anyway, it went on like that off and on for weeks. But finally we got together so that she could tell me what she thought. And... she liked it. For real. She had thoughts on a few fixer-uppers (which are always appreciated), and a lot of little editing bits (word cuts, tense problems, the like). But overall, she liked it. More than that, she got it. She GOT it!
I'm sure I don't need to tell you how thrilling it is when you're trying to do something particular with a piece of writing, and it succeeds. Especially with someone who you know is a good reader.
This is an especially good thing because I was thinking about using this particular story in my MFA application work samples, along with another story, an old stand-by. Now I know that, with a little tweaking, it's a good choice.
A good ending to a good day.
Doesn't everyone have at least one voice in their head?
Labels: writing
posted by erin | 9:27 PM
2 Comments:
um...my voice tells me that what i submit to a workshop is actually good, and then it gets crucified and called conventional.
but most of the time, my voice is the eerie twin of TAV.
lol
ouch! conventional - that can hurt.
but truly, bee, i have a hard time believing that anything you would create might be conventional :)
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