I’ve been writing my entire life. There are days when I forget this, but I have been writing since I was very little. And when one has been writing since she was very little (and made a point of paying attention in English class to learn as many of the rules for both content and grammar as she could squish into her little head), one tends to naturally grow her writing skills. In fact, I’ve often been praised for being a pretty decent, readable writer.
But a few years ago, I decided to get “serious” about my writing. I was just starting to teach essay writing and I was editing fiction and fan fiction for others, and I thought that maybe I could use a better grounding in how to write. So I started reading writing books and blogs. I read a lot of writing books and blogs. For a while, it didn’t bother me that they all pretty much said the same things, because I was doing the “proper” thing and reading all of these books and blogs and learning more about writing.
Early last year, I started realizing that not only were all the books saying the same thing, but I already knew everything they said. I’d learned most of it in middle school English class and then honed it in high school English class. So I started weaning myself away from both. (I think I’m down to a couple of books still on my to-read list and a couple of writing blogs that I happen to find entertaining.)
And then I sat down to revise my second NaNovel, which had been frustrating me for years for various reasons. But I sat down, and I tried to put my finger on what was bothering me, and then I completely rewrote the entire manuscript, outline to draft. I felt like I’d done something better. But I started to revise the new manuscript, and found myself walking off after a couple of paragraphs. I just didn’t want to read it.
I sent the old draft and the new draft to a friend, who identified the problem fairly quickly: The draft written before I started reading books on how to write was more interesting and more engaging than the one written after all of this reading. I was shocked. I’d been learning how to hone my craft, and had written something worse than when I was relying on my school knowledge. (I had noticed a similar problem developing in my blog posts, as well, but I thought I was just being lazy.)
Now, I have to get back my writing skills from a few years ago, the ones I was so complimented on. It’s like starting up ballet after being gone for years. The skills are there, the memory is rusty. Through practice, I’ll get back to where I was.
The lesson here, for me anyway, is not to stop learning. For someone just starting to write, who doesn’t have good memories of strict, exacting English teachers, writing books and blogs are a great place to start. There are some great ones out there for the willing student. The lesson I learned is that you need to train at the level you’re at. For me, I need to identify my weak spots (like that pesky, pesky character development) and then seek out more advanced material to help me correct my problems.
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