Entry from my journal May 16, 2015
Just thinking of all the writing classes I’ve taken in the past few years – and then looking at my actual writing output for the same time. Maybe my focus is skewed.
Or am I so afraid I won’t live up to the classes I took, that I will somehow be more of a disappointment if when I fail because I “should” be better than that?
What would I tell someone else who felt that way?
Classes give you tools. Not all the tools work the same for everyone. Find the ones that work for you and use them.
And people constantly grow and change, so your writing will change because you have changed. But you won’t be able to recognize the change in your work, necessarily, because you will have changed and how you see and interact with writing is not the same as it was before you took the classes.
And when you submit realize everyone comes to your work with a different eye, different experience. You are trying to find the one that your story creates resonance for. It won’t be everyone, but don’t be discouraged. Someone out there will feel, not the same as you do about the story, that’s impossible, but will feel something, and they will want to share it with others, the same way you want to. Just remember you don’t know which person that will be, so you have to keep sharing it.
The world is a big place, billions of people, so even the small slice of people that publish stories is also a big group, full of lots of different people with different experiences. Just keep trying.
