Monday, November 7, 2011

Real Writing

I’m going to continue my posts about things I learned at Honesdale, but this is about something I felt at Honesdale. The Whole Novel Workshop was an opportunity of a lifetime. It was a solid week of writing, complete with a brilliant critique of my entire novel, insightful comments from my peers, and spectacular food prepared by other people. I worried that I wasn’t accomplishing enough during my Opportunity Of A Lifetime. Since I returned home, I realized three things.  

1.  A revision of this magnitude requires hard thinking first and hard work second.   

2.  Real writing, for the most part, doesn’t happen in a cozy cottage surrounded by spectacular fall foliage. It happens around teenage rock bands that show up at dinnertime, mountains of laundry, and days when AWOL characters can’t be coaxed onto the monitor.  

3.  Writing must be done for its own sake. In the face of uncertain economic times and the changing publishing industry, the only thing a writer can do is make the writing as good as it can be.  

5 comments:

Natalie Aguirre said...

Thanks for the inspiration. Sounds like you had a fantastic week.

TimInMich said...

Well put and pertinent. Now I am going to unplug my modem and put it in the trunk of my car to get some work done.

Ann Finkelstein said...

Natalie and Tim: Thanks. I haven't gone so far as to put the modem in the car. I might move my laptop to an internet free zone.

Kim Van Sickler said...

Oh, here's where you're going to talk about The Whole Novel workshop. Well I will watch for it. I didn't realize you started a blog too. I love the combination of writing and pictures. I will follow and Swagger will post you on our blog list. The only problem I see with your blog is you do not yet have Swagger listed on your blog list. He, he.

Ann Finkelstein said...

Kim: I fixed that.