I feel you about the editor factor. Stephen King has an great essay about learning to write where he recalled starting out penning sports copy for a little newspaper in Maine and how that paper's editor really pushed him hard. He gave the guy props for schooling him about the craft to the point where he felt it was something he could see doing well and earning a living at.
I am as stunned by your reply as you might have been by my original comment.
Listen: I wrote professionally about music for over a decade, mostly as a critic and editor. My work put me in the position of being inundated with way more writing, art and music than a human being should ever wade through and out of self-defense, I had to develop a bullshit detector so pitiless it's like a damn thrashing machine.
Retirement from being strapped to the front of that particular ship has not dulled my impatience for sub-par offerings and mediocrity. And for whatever credit that earns me, I am telling you without hesitation: girl, y'all can WRITE.
What ever it is you do when you're not spinning these wonderful tales of yours online, I sincerely urge you to at least consider writing as a possible calling.
Now that I am no longer depending on it to pay the rent, I don't often feel compelled to exhale my opinions anywhere besides my own journal. But the quality of the work I've seen you deliver in fan fiction is just too bad-ass for me to keep my big mouth shut after reading your (yeah, humble) reply. I'm a relatively recent convert to fandom writing, so I can only speak as reader and critic, a writer but certainly not an author.
Bla bla bla- obviously I suffer from my lack of an editor now that I'm no longer on the job. I'm sure this could've been said more concisely, but screw it. Just trust me on this if nothing else: You've got the talent and instincts, you've got the raw magical stuff that can't be taught. Boatloads of it.
As a hater of crap and a lover of awesome, I'd feel like a jerk if I didn't speak up.
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branchandroot
One Snob's Opinion
Date: 2009-11-18 01:55 pm (UTC)I am as stunned by your reply as you might have been by my original comment.
Listen: I wrote professionally about music for over a decade, mostly as a critic and editor. My work put me in the position of being inundated with way more writing, art and music than a human being should ever wade through and out of self-defense, I had to develop a bullshit detector so pitiless it's like a damn thrashing machine.
Retirement from being strapped to the front of that particular ship has not dulled my impatience for sub-par offerings and mediocrity. And for whatever credit that earns me, I am telling you without hesitation: girl, y'all can WRITE.
What ever it is you do when you're not spinning these wonderful tales of yours online, I sincerely urge you to at least consider writing as a possible calling.
Now that I am no longer depending on it to pay the rent, I don't often feel compelled to exhale my opinions anywhere besides my own journal. But the quality of the work I've seen you deliver in fan fiction is just too bad-ass for me to keep my big mouth shut after reading your (yeah, humble) reply. I'm a relatively recent convert to fandom writing, so I can only speak as reader and critic, a writer but certainly not an author.
Bla bla bla- obviously I suffer from my lack of an editor now that I'm no longer on the job. I'm sure this could've been said more concisely, but screw it. Just trust me on this if nothing else: You've got the talent and instincts, you've got the raw magical stuff that can't be taught. Boatloads of it.
As a hater of crap and a lover of awesome, I'd feel like a jerk if I didn't speak up.
There. I'm done barking.
All the best,
Nrrrdy Grrrl
Cate Smith