I wrote my first story in college. It was a strange tale of strange physics that ended with a nun in low earth orbit. I was so proud of it, I showed it to a friend.
He told me it was the worst thing he had ever read.
Handing him my story was like singing off-key for Simon Cowell. Except my friend was a lot meaner than Simon Cowell.
The thing is, everything he said was true. The writing was dreadful and when I realized just how dreadful, I stopped writing. When I started again, I didn’t share anything with him, nor anyone else for that matter.
I often wonder what would have happened had he praised my work. I probably would have kept on sharing it with others until someone less kind than he told me just how dreadful it was.
Even if no one told me how bad it was, sooner or later I was bound to find out on my own and that would be devastating.
What I needed and what I was asking for was the feedback and affirmation that all performers require to hone their craft.
Yes, I said performers.
Writers are just like actors, artists and singers, we do what we do for an audience. In short, we do it for approval. Which is why disapproval is so hard for us to handle and why we feel embarrassed and humiliated when our work bombs.
The problem is, we are caught in a Catch-22. We learn what people like by showing them our work but when we do, we risk disapproval – which is the exact opposite of why we do what we do.
It is a crazy problem but I found a simple answer to it in a little orange box with white chunky letters on a website. The letters spelled the word Submit and the website was Gather.com.
When I post my work here, I am sharing it with my peers. Among them, I can be assured that whether they approve or disapprove, at least they are going through the same things I am.
Having said that, whenever I post my work, I still feel a twinge of fear. There is always the risk that a Simon Cowell is lurking ready to pounce at the other end of the wire, or worse, that one day I might reread what I wrote and cringe.
It is that fear that keeps me on my toes but it is also the magic of writing sites like this. There is always a wonderful tension between how easy it is to post and how easy it is to post something truly embarrassing.
Even in a community as safe as Gather.com, we may still feel intimidated from time to time – but we should never let that hold us back - because learning to write is a painful process and the best way to move forward is to put our egos on the line.
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This week's challenge: take a chance. Take something that you have been working on, polish it up a bit and post it.
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Post your article to Gather Writing Essentials.
BE SURE TO TAG your submission with MWE. Note: I search for articles using the tag "MWE" If you don't tag it right, I will not find it.
- Include "Monday Writing Essential" in your title.
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Last week’s writing challenge: write like a tough guy - drew the following responses:
writing like a tough bitch mwe sept 10/12 by karen vaughan
Monday Writing Essential (Write Like a Tough Guy): Bad Day at the Office by A. F. Stewart
(Monday Writing Essential) The Case of the Girl, the Book and the Bad Guy. by Patrick M.
Tough Guy (Monday Writing Essential) by G.M. Jackson
Weekly reminder: don't forget to recommend an article that you like (to learn why, read Ann Marcaida's article Attract More Writers and Artists to Gather!).. Also try to place a comment on at least one article and say more than you liked the piece. Tell the author what worked and what needs work.
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Comments: 78
Wow! You have been keeping a diary since before Nixon? That's incredible.
I think sometimes...
That has never been my impression of you.
...sometimes I'm my own worst critic...
Would that were true.
...so that keeps me on my toes...
That is not apparent from your socio-political stances. And typing of stances: neither is it apparent from your current profile picture - but it does seem to be true from my pic.
You knew I was going to do that, right? Excellent writing and a super challenge this week.
Featured on Gather’s Luminous Writers & Artists.
Um, my dog Bear -- is a girl.
I've discovered that no matter what age we are we still love those "attaboys". That's why I post my cartoon doodles on Gather instead of going out and trying to save the world - it's because it's what I love doing and I'm always anxious for the feed back and I can't save the world anyway so why not, LOL! Maybe some day I'll figure out how to draw my little grandma cartoon without having to make up a story to accompany her .... LOL.
Attaboy Greg, this was a great story and great prompt. Now I'll just have to think of a story for little cartoon grandma to illustrate. LOL!
I shake my head every time someone accuses me of being a writer because I really am not, I just write down what comes to mind, and most of the words write themselves (I do not have a very large vocabulary, my words are always simple). I read the stories that all my Gather friends post here on Gather and I'm awed at all the talent. I've got to where I can recognize trained talent (journalist by profession from natural talent). To be accused of being a writer is one of the nicest compliments that I've ever been paid.
Wanta know what the sweetest compliment I've ever been paid is? (another memory from the past)
Once long ago when I was working with some of our city's disadvantaged I had the displeasure of overhearing a serious argument between four young street men. They were arguing over money and it was getting heated. I did not wish to be a witness to a knifing (one was pulled) so I walked up to them and introduced myself and told them that I couldn't help but overhear them and proceeded to scold them for arguing about money and explained to them why ... the amount was very small ... I had them laughing before I started to walk away and I overhead one of the young men say, "Awwww, she's got thug love." I grinned because he didn't know that I was trying not to be a witness to a serious crime and I felt complimented. Now, I'm relaying this memory because to be complimented on my silly stories gives me the same kind of nice feeling that the unexpected compliment gave me.
Thanks for reading my stories folks, I appreciate it.
You ARE a natural story teller. You know that, don't you?
The answer is "no". I wasn't afraid. I knew that they would either listen or tell me to "butt out" but in more colorful words ... LOL. I didn't know them and they didn't know me but for some reason I was always accepted as part of the background when I passed out blankets on cold days or shoes to the children on occasion. If I remember correctly the amount of money was less than a $100 and one of the boys spent more than his share of this accumulated money, who knows where it came from and I didn't ask. I mostly told them to stop fighting over money and that they could get more money and to stop fighting about it because if they have to go to prison for killing each other over money they should make sure that it was a lot more money than what they were fighting over, even it were a million dollars it wasn't worth killing over .... then I said something along the lines of "on second thought I might kill all of you, myself, if was a million dollars" .... they laughed and it took the edge off because I'm sure that the mental picture of helpless little ole me killing all four of them was funny. It was one of those "you did too" - "no I did not" arguments with all of them getting hot under the collar about it .... they cooled down and I didn't wait around to see what happened later.
I worked for the Minneapolis Police Department for ten years. The best thing about the job were the stories. My lieutenant had a fun one about working as a decoy in the warehouse district.
The city was getting complaints from bar owners about street people mugging drunken tourists. So Bud, my lieutenant, spent a few evenings leaning against a building, posing as a drunk. Sure enough, one night a pair of thugs approached him and began rifling through his pockets for money but Bud resisted.
The thing you have to know about Bud is he is very tall and very thin. He has the physique of a plank. So the muggers, figuring they might need a little privacy if things got ugly, tipped him over and each taking an end, carried him off into the alley.
He was wired for sound and when the cavalry failed to come charging to his rescue, he began yelling into his mic, "Uh, guys....."
The muggers, not quite catching on, told him to shut up. Bud responded by saying to them, "I'm not talking you.." That is when they figured it out and bolted.
A chase ensued.
Made me smile.
That is where Gather comes in. Here in GWE, we have a potential audience of thousands, all of whom have the same interests as us.
That's odd, I remember you won Poem-of-the-Day during Mindful Poetry's month-long contest.
John Phillipp did much the same for me. Thank you, John.
Thanks for sharing and submitting to
The Surreal Circus.
I was scared the first time I submitted something. A friend on here encouraged me to do it. I'm still scared, but now 4 years later I've shared a bunch. You all are kind. Still, I wonder what a paid editor would say.
I appreciate each reader I encounter on Gather and hope I have encouraged them in my comments on their posts.
This is another of your excellent posts, Greg.
Soon I will step out on that limb.
Thank you for submitting to: Not Gathering Dust!
Make your own banner at MyBannerMaker.com!
I've been involved in a number of writing groups over the years, and sometimes you get folks who are so jaded and discouraged from unsupportive commentary, or have just read a book on "how to write", that they are savage rather than supportive (more like Brittany than Simon!).
This is why I like Gather--it's a great place to play, with like-minded people!
I participate monthly at hazelandwren.com. It's a writing board owned and managed by two sisters who live here in the Twin Cities, but folks from anywhere can add their work and comments.
Once a month is Open Mic when I submit a piece of prose or poem and receive feedback. It's been supportive and often there is excellent suggestions and comments.
I'm going to be sending you something soon, via Pam. When you read the beginning of it, you'll understand what I mean by that.
The best critique of a first story should go something like this:
- Writing is very hard and beginning is hardest of all, so congratulations.
- Here are the things you did well.
- Here are the things you need to work on.
- Here is where you might want to invest your time.
Clearly different strokes for different folks. I joined Gather at the encouragement of MPR promos. I dithered around a bit with comments, but didn't have the time to add much. Then a forum I used closed down and a magazine piece I'd written was refused (to my surprise) so I came here and posted it. The response was great so I posted a 2000-word piece to a travel contest here on Gather. Came out in the top twenty and was hooked on it since.
The only reason I joined Gather in the first place was because Will, my oldest son, along with three others were recruited by Tom Gerace to design Gather back in 2004/05. In June of 2005 it went online for the first time and that's when Will kept encouraging me to join....which I didn't do until Jan. 2006. At the time, I had no intentions of actually participating...just did it to support Will's efforts.
Maybe I'll post a short chapter in response to your challenge. It would be a wake up call to improve, improve, improve. Great challenge, Greg.
Once we get our heads around the concept of improve, improve, improve; we become less shy about sharing and more enthusiastic about improving.
Whatever, I responded to your challenge here.
Gee, I never thought of doing anything like that. LOL! I'll give it a try.
I just loved the comments to this post. You have really got the folk chatting now.