Another short story written.
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https://www.bookbub.com/authors/j-lenni-dorner BookBub author profile— I'd be grateful if you'd follow me.
#AtoZChallenge a-to-zchallenge.com Kindly check out the blog hop's website.
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Shout-out to Alex and the awesome co-hosts for today: Feather Stone, Janet Alcorn, Rebecca Douglass, Jemima Pett, and Pat Garcia!
May 7 question - Some common fears writers share are rejection, failure, success, and lack of talent or ability. What are your greatest fears as a writer? How do you manage them?
I'm hijacking the prompt this month. My answer doesn't exactly follow the prompt.In Top Chef Boston Season 12, Episode 9, "Big Sausage", the chefs had to create a dish inspired by a New England literary work. Gregory Gourdet served an Edgar Allan Poe-inspired dish of seared beef tenderloin, grilled hen, parsnip puree, beets, and crispy nori, inspired by "The Raven".
Granted, I can't cook (especially indoors) worth a damn. But ignore that a moment. If I had to do a dish inspired by Poe, I'd go with The Tell-Tale Heart.
Get a beef or deer heart and some vegetables, especially tomatoes, and such for a casserole.
Cover the dish with fillo dough, decorated to look like a hardwood floor. Then serve the dish to the table. Stare the people down while knocking on the underside of the table. Let them slice it up themselves. With the tomatoes 🍅 having it look all bloody.
My silence would only add to the creepiness of the mood.
"A heart under the floorboard?" Pretty obvious what story I put on the plate.
As far as fear, I think that would be served up. 🍽
May 7 question - Some common fears writers share are rejection, failure, success, and lack of talent or ability. What are your greatest fears as a writer? How do you manage them?
The greatest fear, or insecurity, I experience is that my writing isn't "perfect." A big part of that comes from a messed-up youth. My educational path was, in no way, traditional. (Especially not in modern America.) Grammatical rules vary by region. Modern Language Association and Chicago/Turabian style don't always match, for example. I use Grammarly. We don't always agree on articles, as one example.
The story on my blog last month got ONE reread. I was publishing almost as I wrote. I didn't pre-schedule, like I usually do. There are probably mistakes. No "Beta" readers. I didn't run every scene through five different checkers.
"What stories or poems or books or thoughts are suppressed because you haven’t yet moved on from whatever it is you’re working on now? " I read that somewhere once. And it stuck. Chase perfectionism, or focus on producing more? Finding the balance. That's a fear, worry, or insecurity with which I struggle.
Excuses cover up fear. Afraid the writing isn't good enough? Find excuses not to write!
There's a quote (which I can't seem to find on Google) about the notion that we only fear failing at something which matters most to us. You can't fail at something you genuinely don't care about, or some idea along those lines.
The story on my blog last month got ONE reread. I was publishing almost as I wrote. I didn't pre-schedule, like I usually do. There are probably mistakes. No "Beta" readers. I didn't run every scene through five different checkers.
"What stories or poems or books or thoughts are suppressed because you haven’t yet moved on from whatever it is you’re working on now? " I read that somewhere once. And it stuck. Chase perfectionism, or focus on producing more? Finding the balance. That's a fear, worry, or insecurity with which I struggle.
Excuses cover up fear. Afraid the writing isn't good enough? Find excuses not to write!
There's a quote (which I can't seem to find on Google) about the notion that we only fear failing at something which matters most to us. You can't fail at something you genuinely don't care about, or some idea along those lines.
😱😨🙀😜😕😬😣
I saw this IWSG post on Facebook. It mentions promoting your books and such at, among others, your local library.
This is the local library to me, the only one that has my books.
So it matters to me that the library stays funded. For whatever reason, most of the library funding comes from the school's budget. (Or is approved by the school board?)
$5 a year is the bargain to become a "friend" of the library.
Those are my replies for this month.
Alex- I'd like to volunteer for September to cohost.
Thanks for visiting. I hope you enter the giveaway-- it closes soon!
Writing isn't perfect. Any time we read something we wrote, we can think of another good way to write a sentence, paragraph, etc. And I don't always agree with Grammarly. I use it every day for work and sometimes reject its suggestions for various reasons.
ReplyDeleteThere is no perfect. There is only our best.
ReplyDeleteThe more you produce, the better you will become, and then you don't have to worry about perfection.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you were very brave during the A-Z!
ReplyDeleteThat scene about the food... awesome!
Ronel visiting for IWSG day A Refresher on Book Marketing
"The perfect is the enemy of the good." And those AI grammar checkers are all over the place. I use them, and can make them useful, but I think they are wrong more often than not. And not just "wrong" on stylistic counts, but just plain WRONG. So stick to your guns, check references, and believe in what you have written!
ReplyDeleteI have the "It should be perfect problem" when I'm writing, but then I remember what an artist once told me. "If a piece is perfect, then it's likely static. Static is boring. Leave a bit of imperfection to create interest and excitement."
ReplyDeleteWell, that's easy. I've never created anything close to perfect.
https://substack.com/@cleemckenzie/p-16283568
I also have a perfect problem, which causes problems in my writing. Nothing is perfect, I have to repeat.
ReplyDeleteI use that fear too, to stop me from sharing things; it has to be perfect first! Off to find you on bluesky...
ReplyDelete