Yesterday I finished judging a local contest. I was reading paranormal romance stories. It brought me back-many, many long years ago to when I first began to write novels. It's not that the work was really bad, as much as the writers have so much to learn. One work in particular read as if it were written my a high school student. Perhaps it was. There was a wonderful naive concept of love and romance. As a somewhat older woman, don't laugh, it struck me as creepy stalker love. But I can remember the young girl in me and she might have thought it was beautiful, prince charming stuff...sigh. Funny how our view of life changes as we grow older. They say really good writers have some life experience on them. Meanwhile there are phenoms who get published at 17.
The truth is that long lasting careers are built by people with life experience. It shows in the writing and creates more nuance, texture, grit.
I wrote my first book when I was twenty. Someone told me to forget it. No one buys a book from anyone until they are 40. Ha- well, there are always people who will be eager to tell you you can't do something. What they mean is they believe they can't do something.
I digress. My point being that writers grow into their craft-even after they publish. So keep writing. Keep growing. Have a great weekend. Cheers~
"...as if it were written my a high school student."
ReplyDeleteNancy, I caught you in a writing mistake, or was that done just to make a point.
:)
How funny. I remember my first writing class in college, a girl wrote a short romance story, where the hero just happened to pop up everywhere and the instructor of the class was like, "Am I the only here here who feels like this guy is stalking her?"
ReplyDeleteHi Marty, you have caught my typo gremlin Ferd at work. He is now dancing and clapping his hands and giggling like a...well, gremlin.
ReplyDeleteHi Linda, It's a fine line, isn't it? The scene still sticks in my head as really creepy. I hope that wasn't the writer's intent.
Your typo gremlin has a name? Maybe that's why mine is so mean...I haven't named him yet!
ReplyDeleteJudy (South Africa)