Failure at drafting a post
9 March 2006 05:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
larryhammerSubject: Managing failure
One advantage of writing frivolous metered narrative verse is that since commercial success is impossible, I'm freed from worrying about failure. That this is a pessimists's advantage has not been lost to me for many years. Nor to the Bad Brain Chemicals who like mockin
Subject: Staging
Do I improve? I hope so. I try to. Every project, I consciously work on a skill or two -- for the paused novel, structure and prose voice; for the new long poem, narrative pulse and dialog in verse. Last week, I wrote a stanza I'm still mighty pleased with, and think one of my best in terms of solid craft. This week, I picked up a story finished a couple years ago, and said, "Oh that's why it never sold -- and I know how to fix it now."
It's the waiting for the skills to jump to the next plateau that gets frustr
Subject: I sometimes wish I was less of an egoist
I sometimes wish I wrote poetry with more facility.
I sometimes wish I wrote free verse that doesn't sound like prose with line breaks.
I sometimes wish I wrote short poems better than long ones.
I sometimes wish I submitted what I do write more consistently.
I sometimes wish frivolous metered narrative verse was in fashion, or at least commonly marketable.
I sometimes wish it was possible to be a successful full-time writer at what I write best. Not that it ever was for any but a few.
I am not a failure.
Doing something I'm good at is too damn fun to be called failing. Doing something kin and kith like and believe in is not failing. Doing is not failing.
Not doing is
Subject: My ambitions are more modest than I am
One day, I'll manage to write a simple declarative sentence that isn't about me.
---L.
One advantage of writing frivolous metered narrative verse is that since commercial success is impossible, I'm freed from worrying about failure. That this is a pessimists's advantage has not been lost to me for many years. Nor to the Bad Brain Chemicals who like mockin
Subject: Staging
Do I improve? I hope so. I try to. Every project, I consciously work on a skill or two -- for the paused novel, structure and prose voice; for the new long poem, narrative pulse and dialog in verse. Last week, I wrote a stanza I'm still mighty pleased with, and think one of my best in terms of solid craft. This week, I picked up a story finished a couple years ago, and said, "Oh that's why it never sold -- and I know how to fix it now."
It's the waiting for the skills to jump to the next plateau that gets frustr
Subject: I sometimes wish I was less of an egoist
I sometimes wish I wrote poetry with more facility.
I sometimes wish I wrote free verse that doesn't sound like prose with line breaks.
I sometimes wish I wrote short poems better than long ones.
I sometimes wish I submitted what I do write more consistently.
I sometimes wish frivolous metered narrative verse was in fashion, or at least commonly marketable.
I sometimes wish it was possible to be a successful full-time writer at what I write best. Not that it ever was for any but a few.
I am not a failure.
Doing something I'm good at is too damn fun to be called failing. Doing something kin and kith like and believe in is not failing. Doing is not failing.
Not doing is
Subject: My ambitions are more modest than I am
One day, I'll manage to write a simple declarative sentence that isn't about me.
---L.
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Date: 10 March 2006 03:42 am (UTC)I enjoy reading it all, or you wouldn't be on my F-list.
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Date: 10 March 2006 03:58 am (UTC)The failures, as you said, are those who give up and stop trying. I really, really believe that.
Every single time I sell a poem, I'm shocked. Then comes the fear that someone will come back and say, Hah! Just kidding! And while selling a poem is a big deal to me, that little voice in the back of my head tells me that the larger spec fic world really doesn't care.
For a long time, every single short story rejection was like killing a piece of my soul. I've sent out short stories for almost five years and I can not sell any of them. Talk about feeling like a total failure. Took me a long time to realize I am a novelist and a poet.
I wish I could write frivolous metered narrative verse, but I can't.
I wish I could write long poems, but my mind doesn't work that way.
I wish I could master formal forms and haiku, but they elude me.
So I work on what I'm good at and keep trying to get better. As long as you do the same, life is golden. :)
no subject
Date: 10 March 2006 02:28 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 10 March 2006 02:29 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 10 March 2006 02:30 pm (UTC)---L.