Of Slowing Your Writer’s Scrutiny

I think as a writer it’s easy to pick other author’s work apart. I know that I’m guilty, and my stuff is by no means perfect in every way. We try to cross all our T’s and dot all our I’s. We try to tie up loose ends in our stories. We do our best to make each and every page of our books a work of art. Some are better at this than others. Ultimately, it all boils down to experience, practice, writing consistently, reading constantly, and learning what to fix or leave be when it comes to our own book’s criticism. We learn and we grow with everything we do… or don’t do, for that matter.

My point is, when was the last time you writers out there reading this, was actually able to sit down and enjoy an entire book WITHOUT placing it under the magnifying glass of judgement? Sentence by sentence, word by word. When was the last time that you made a mental note before going in, to just enjoy the story?!

I know from experience that this can be next to impossible at times, especially when reading something with the exact same phrases used over and over… or even an over use of filler words, and spelling mistakes. Naturally, it’s noticing these things that in a way put us on the next level of professionalism as writers. On the other hand, it’s our burden to bear in our inability to NOT scrutinize every single book that’s splayed open in our hands.

If this particular issue has been a struggle for you as of late, the way it has myself, and it’s interrupting your ability to properly devour a book… Then I please, oh please take some time for yourself. WE ALL AUTHORS NEED TO DO THIS ONCE IN A WHILE!! Take a break from your promised reviews, the TBR pile of unknowns, and grab something written by an author you already know you love. A book that you can’t put down, even if you’ve already read it a million times. Do it for yourself, for the love of books, but more importantly do it for the sake of sanity. Just so that you can give yourself the break needed to slow your scrutiny! I do this myself at least once every two months. As a writer, I can’t think of anything more refreshing.

Happy reading, friends! More importantly happy writing!

ALSO, if you want to share the character personalities of your WIP with the world, in a way that doesn’t give away your plot points then there is still time to join Septembers writing challenge!  Write a short story of your characters at the poker table, and lets share them to the blogasphere!! See the challenge rules below!

Here’s how it works:

As the initiator: Every month I’ll give a real time circumstance, hang out spot, or every day situation. I’ll post the exact scene/challenge the first week of every month.

As an Author/challenge joiner: All you need to do is use the characters from your WIP (work in progress), or even a published works, and plug them into the given scene for a short story style post. It can be funny, serious, deadly, really just whatever you want as long as it’s true to your characters (as in, what they would actually do in this situation)!! It’s a fun way to be creative with those personalities that you as their creator love so much. It’s also a fun way to introduce them to the world and your blogs, without giving away your plots and twists… Just pure ‘meet my characters, and get to know their personalities’ separate from their book.

How we work together as Authors and the Initiator:  I’ll do my own scene/challenge post on the very last day of the month (that way I can be sure to link in every joiner, and you can do your posts at your own leisure). Write your scene’s anytime you wish, at any point of the month. All that I need is your final challenge post link. You can give it to me in any comment, or even link me into your post so that it’ll pop in my newsfeeds! So simple!

(If you do just link me in to your own posts, then make sure you use a regular blog post to link me in with, rather than my pain page, that won’t actually give me a notification. I don’t want to skip anyone over! This particular post is ideal, but do your own thing.)

For Sept… Use the scene of playing poker!! READY GO

Good luck writers!  Lets have fun with this!  I can’t wait to share my own little scene’s and look forward to reading yours!