Good morning and Happy Tuesday!
One of my favorite moments of the day is when I crack open my morning Diet Coke and take that first, fuzzy sip. I am not a coffee drinker, so DC is how I get my caffeine, and yes, I know it’s an addiction. My dad, God rest his soul, used to joke that everyone needed a vice. I tend to agree with him. I have more than one, but I’m something of an over-achiever…
When I first began writing, I made the rookie error of making my characters perfect. Luckily, no one ever saw those first efforts. I’ve never taken a writing course. I was part of a writing group, but shortly after I joined, my youngest got cancer and I had to quit, well, pretty much everything in my life, to focus on her. (She’s 23 now and very healthy.) I have gone to writing workshops, and I’ve listened to many successful authors, have had excellent editors, and great critique partners, but I’ve never done a course on how to write romance. I do have a degree in English, but it was focused on teaching English, not writing.
Everything I’ve learned throughout this 20+ year journey in writing has been on-the-job. I write, I make enormous mistakes, I re-write, I throw away never to be seen again stories, I start and don’t finish stories, and I listen to what other people have to say. That is probably the hardest lesson I’ve learned; how to accept criticism without getting defensive.
Actually, I ALWAYS get defensive, but I don’t react on it. That is where the real learning takes place. When an editor or critique partner makes a comment on something, I give myself one minute to feel defensive, then I think about it. Does the comment make sense? Will it make the story stronger? Does it show another side to the character that I didn’t expect? I don’t always agree, but I always, always think about the criticism.
In the end, I’m not writing the books so I can read them, I’m writing so other people can read the story I’ve downloaded from my overactive brain onto the page. If someone else is reading the story and it doesn’t make sense to them, then I need to fix it. Arguing over every nit and pick defeats the purpose of having a critique partner in the first place.
Which brings me back to vices. Characters should not be perfect, because there is no such thing as a perfect person. Since there is no such thing as a perfect person, we should allow ourselves to make mistakes and learn from them. Sometimes you have to lean into your vices.
With that said, I think I’ll get another Diet Coke and keep moving on Rogue 2