Or—
The Unknown Known
On writers’ chat boards, these questions and their variations come up a lot:
*How do you know the story is finished?
*How do you know if it is good, i.e. publishable?
*How do you know which revisions suggestions to take and
which to pass?
*How do you know you have done the revision right?
*How do you know if a rejection is global (the manuscript is
a hopeless mess) or just one person’s opinion?
Basically, all the above amount to how do you know if you should be writing with the hope to find readers
who are not friends and family.
And the answer?
You don’t. You don’t know, but this sort of knowing is not
the right goal.
The questions are a testament to the self-doubt that plagues
artistic people right after the creative high wears off. It’s part of the
process, and thinking some affirmation will settle it is part of the delusion.
I figured that as long as I use the doubting voices to
create rather than paralyze, I am in the right place doing the right thing.
That’s about all I know.
Wise words.
ReplyDeleteHow do we know anything? We have to feel it.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Yes, to all of this!
ReplyDeleteSounds good to me.
ReplyDeleteOne never knows when the story is good enough. Inevitably even after it's published, you find things that could've been better.
ReplyDelete