Welcome to my newer followers! Thanks for coming by to check out the blog. And a big thank you to my old followers for staying interested and putting up with my time-lapses :/
Don't forget! You have until Friday to enter!
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It's been a difficult week, and I'm not sure where it went, to be honest. I remember Tuesday, and then all of a sudden it was Saturday. I think I must have hit a temporal flux somewhere along the line.
My sincerest apologies, folks. Here I am, attempting to rejoin regular blogging society.
Update: the write-up from my interview... well, it happened. I turned it in on Wednesday. After we'd passed them back, during the course of discussion I realized I hadn't entirely followed the directions of the assignment. Ack! Plus I didn't like the characterization (though there's very little one can do in 400 words), and many other things about it. I suppose as writers, we're always highly self-critical, right?
On Friday, I was chatting with another student from the class outside the building when our instructor came up. She started chatting with us, talking about how much she loved everyone's story from class so much, and that she planned to read a few during class. Well, she started with *mine*. Dumbstruck = me! She had a lot of great things to say about it, including that, with some minor tweaks, I could get it published.
Say what???
Oh, so giddy am I. Later that day, I got a lovely compliment from someone in my critique group, too. Since I wasn't feeling well, the two of those things really lifted my spirits and made my day so much better.
Otherwise, my last three days have been spent in a haze from which I am only beginning to recover. While I've gotten some writing done, I'm terrified as to the quality I will find when I go back to edit it. But the positive comments from this week also make me feel a bit more confident about what I'll find. Editing will be necessary (when is it ever not??), but maybe it won't be quite as bad.
It all got me thinking about the advice and criticism we all crave. For months, since joining the online blogosphere of the writing world, I've desperately wanted hard-nailed constructive criticism. And I've gotten it in many forms. Each time I've welcomed it (mostly) openly, and appreciated each piece. In my desire for the constructive to improve my craft, I think I lost sight of the need for positive reinforcement and how much that's necessary as well. While I feel a little head-swelly from Friday's compliments, I also remembered that, yeah, it's good to hear that people like my work. There's only so much self-flagellation a girl can take without caring for her wounds, too, right? Or eventually it gets to be too much and she has to stop.
So, hurrah for the positive!
And here, I need to send a out a quick thanks to those who have given me the most positive feedback along the way and made me feel like I can really do this: Jose, Maria, Catalina, Nazarea, Carol, Auzy, Astra, and the rest of my crit group. You're all awesome! Thank you :)
PS—I've recently received a few awards, too. Yea for more praise! I'll be posting them over the next couple of days.
14 comments:
This is so important. We need positive feedback just as much as the negative one. Not just because we otherwise would be completely disheartened, but also because sometimes it can be just as difficult to spot the good things about your own work as it is spotting the errors. So unless someone points it out, we stand at risk of editing it out.
I constantly try to remind myself of this when I give feedback. I am a natural critic, but I have to be intentionally positive.
I think my problem is that I like the constructive stuff so much that I forget to comment on what's great. I really need to work on that myself. Good point about needing to spot the good things with the bad. Although, I must say that I don't know I'd become completely disheartened. I would just try harder! :) haha.
oh, yes, praise is the food for brain :) and for creativity as well. Congrats on getting some lovely praise for your story.
Well, a friend of mine bought a book recently in a bookshoop, and got amazed by it's preface not knowing it was me who wrote the preface for that book (I do that sometimes for my publisher) so she was pleasantly shocked when she realized my name was at the end of the preface she liked :)
There you are!!
So cool that your interview piece was read out loud. Praise is always good for us. I haven't put anything out there in a while, so no recent praise but I was once told that teens would love to read what I wrote... it's good that I write for teens... or that could have made me a very sad panda. :)
Glad you;re back!!!
DEZ, thanks. That's awesome that your friend liked the preface without knowing it was yours. Tell me, though, how many jobs do you have?
Michelle, I don't put much out there either, but I need to start. I'm glad you weren't a sad panda :) It's good to hear that what you write fits your target audience.
Awesome! Sounds like you're doing great!! :)
My most recent good news is that there was apparently a temporal flux that explains how quickly the week went by!
Jemi, temporal fluxes are a good thing? AH! That's news to me. :)
Rosie, I'm like you : temporal fluxes are never a good thing for me. I have too much to do and not enough time to do it in without losing any minutes! Have a good week, Roland
Hey Rosie, it's me. Long time no comment... that sounds weird. But you know what I mean.
I've tentatively opened a bilingual Korean-English blog. It's http://bh507.blogspot.com. Yup, BH 507.
Not sure how long I can keep up with the English postings but I'm gonna try.
Miss you.
Congratulations on the postive feedback...That's awesome!
That is awesome! Congrats.
One of my greatest moments in life was when a Professor chose MY work to read to the class of 250 students. Changed me forever as a person and a writer.
Fascinating post and discussion. I’m pleased that I dropped by.
All the best, Boonie
Roland, it's so true. I need about 5 more hours for every day!
Bora, I'm on my way, girl!
Sharon, thanks! It felt pretty awesome :)
Cheeseboy, wow, that's amazing! 250? I'm impressed. My class is only about 1/16 of that! :)
Boonie, I'm glad you've enjoyed it :)
You go, girl! ;o)
Yup, writers need encouragement and well-deserved praise. We can't concentrate on having our writing weeds hacked down all the time, or we'll get bogged down. Gotta praise the flowers, too!
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