After a summer spent in the library and Starbucks, I have four complete short stories. One of them underwent heavy revision at Juniper Young Writer's Institute where I submitted the piece for my 'pod' (a group of about 8 teenage writers) to edit. Their feedback, along with my writing teacher, an MFA student named Jane, was very helpful and inspired me to write a prequel to the story as well as make revisions within the original story itself. The other three stories have only been read by myself and need a lot of work, but I am sure myself and my wonderful mentor will be up to the task.
This summer gave me a much-needed opportunity to basically force myself to write a certain number of stories, which was really helpful because now I have a large volume of writing to work with. The sheer number of hours spent writing helped me to solidify what people refer to as a ‘writing process’, something I never really understood before. For example, I write much better if I’m not at home. The library in particular worked well for me, because of the quiet and seclusion. However, Starbucks’ offer of caffeine was also quite useful. I also really can’t write unless I’m sitting at a table. I’ve tried writing with my laptop in my lap, but for whatever reason, I find myself getting distracted very easily. Finally, I have to listen to music. It doesn’t matter what type of music, but it has to be there.
My mentor and I met last week and decided to meet again in two weeks. In the meantime, I will send her my first story with a list of aspects about the story I am concerned about. This will give her something specific to concentrate on while reading my piece as well as provide me with helpful feedback. My personal hope is that we’ll be able to focus more on the story as a whole and its effect on the reader.
No comments:
Post a Comment