[stylist] Short article=-=- What it Takes to Become a Master Writer

[loristay at aol.com]

I think this depends on the abilities of the writer!
When I first started writing, my ideas were silly, my dialogue flat, my 
prose infantile.   I was thirteen, after all!   Gradually my work improved.   I 
consider myself a slow learner in some respects.   When critique was 
offered, I said, what do they know?   Years later I reviewed both the work and the 
critique and said, Oh, that's what he meant!
But not all critique is valuable.   Once I promised to send a manuscript to 
someone, and he returned a critique before he received the manuscript, 
telling me what he expected I had written about, and that he didn't think I 
could handle it!   He was wrong on both counts, and it ended the friendship.
Each time I took a writing course, I brought home a new piece of 
information that I might have gotten from Writers Market, but didn't.   The first was, 
Who is your market?   Write for your market, or find out what the market 
wants.   If you write for yourself alone, you are your only market.   That 
doesn't work.   The second was, Once your major dramatic question is answered, 
the book is over.   So if you write a mystery, make sure it isn't solved 
till the last chapter.
And the third was...well, I'm still learning.   I was born with certain 
talents, but writing for me is not a talent but a skill.   and yes, I have far 
more than ten years behind me.   I liked that article, by the way, Robert.   
She nailed it.
Lori
In a message dated 12/4/09 3:12:07 PM, newmanrl at cox.net writes:


> 
> Seeing the stages of editing would be interesting. I wonder how many
> different stages a person will have? And if each person will have the same
> basic stages?
> 
>