I’m Still Learning
Good morning and Happy Monday!
This past week has had my emotions running the gamut, from slightly depressed (Maybe just feeling sorry for myself is a better way to put it) to Euphoria. And believe it or not, with each step and each emotion I have learned some new things along the way.
Come May I will celebrate my first anniversary as a writer! Boy I have learned a lot! With still a long way to go!
I think most of everyone has heard about Robert Fulghum’s book
All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten
http://www.amazon.com/Really-Need-Know-Learned-Kindergarten/dp/080410526X
Well for me that’s not quite true. I still can’t draw or cut a straight line.
But I wanted to share a few things that I have learned this past year.
1. Anyone can be a writer. No really! We can all put words down on paper. It’s how a person tells the story, that’s the catch.
2. Not everyone will like what you write.
3. Even when you think your story is as good as it can get, it can still get better.
4. Writing is hard work.
5. Not everyone you know will be supportive.
6. Never publish your book on create space using the full color interior option.
This last one I found out just the other day. I published my novel “The Good Dr. Grant” and I have one color photo instead of a B&W photo inside, of my son’s dog and because of that the printing costs are outrageous! The lowest price they will let me sell it for is 41.55. So I don’t plan on selling too many copies, but at least I’ve learned something.
You can get the e-book for free tomorrow April 17th here
There are other things I’ve learned this past year. One thing has to do with #3
The novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo, “Chris’ Journey Turning Different Corners” I felt it was finished, I even queried it. I picked it up the other day to start formatting it and…Okay so it needs some help. The story is there, the dialogue is there, there’s description, but…
With all the different things I have learned from authors and writers and blogs, I know I have to format it. I know that some of the punctuation isn’t there. I also know that I wrote it in a telling style instead of a showing and there is way too much he said, she said. I have never considered myself to be a perfectionist, but I always try to do my best and take pride in what I do.
No matter how much you think you know, there is always something new to learn. I also learned that according to the Myers-Briggs psychology test, that I should be a counselor. Actually, I had considered that profession in college. You can take their test here…
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp Very interesting assessment.
Counselors have an exceptionally strong desire to contribute to the welfare of others, and find great personal fulfillment interacting with people, nurturing their personal development, guiding them to realize their human potential. Although they are happy working at jobs (such as writing) that require solitude and close attention,”
Well that’s pretty much it. Here’s to learning! Cheers!
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- Tagged: blog, books, format, giveaway, he said, learn, learning, Mothers day, punctuation, quiz, she said, test, writing
karensdifferentcorners 
Congrats on publishing!
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Thank you!
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One thing I’ve learned about all of this is that the learning never stops.It’s a VERY double-edged sword. My puny human brain can only absorb so much! 🙂
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My son told me that he had read somewhere that the human brain can only hold a total of two years worth of memories and that is why we only remember bits and pieces.
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I have trouble remembering what I had for breakfast, let alone 2 years worth of stuff!
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It’s only remembered in bits and pieces! Like I can remember making gingerbread cookies in kindergarten, but not much else about being 5. As for breakfast, I had oatmeal this morning, but I can’t promise you I’ll remember that tomorrow! LOL Hope you have been having a great day!.
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I think I’ll write down what I had for breakfast. Then you can ask me any time. But I’ll probably forget where I wrote it down.
I’ve often tried to remember things from my early childhood and I do remember some things. I know I had this recurring nightmare when I was five or six about me riding a bicycle and Frankenstein’s monster was riding on my handlebars. Scared the crap out of me for a good two or three years! And now that I’ve relived it, it’ll probably come back.
Well, I was having a good day, LOL. 🙂
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Your son is wrong. The human brain stores everything you ever experienced. It is buried deep within the sub-conscious mind. There are techniques to finding things stored in the sub-conscious from years ago. I wrote all my childhood memories into a book, yet I often have trouble remembering (short term) what I had for breakfast.
Short term memory seems to fail us as we age, but the long term never goes away. Does that mean that twenty years from now I will remember what I had for breakfast today?
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Well I can’t say he was wrong, but maybe the article he read was wrong 🙂 Okay you wrote all your childhood memories, but from a day to day basis or things that had significance. Like I said I can remember the cookies in kindergarten, or going on a road trip to OH when I was five and a few of the details there, but not the whole trip.
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Being men, it’s probably a scientific fact that we forget just about everything (I’m sure a lot of women would agree with that statement, LOL.) Of course, if it’s a great sports play or game from just about any time in the distant past, we can recall that almost instantly. Funny how that works. 🙂
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Good morning David 🙂 “Of course, if it’s a great sports play or game from just about any time in the distant past, we can recall that almost instantly. Funny how that works.”
I was just thinking that. That we tend to remember things that hold a certain significance for us, like your monster dream or sports score. I have a hard time remembering names, but dates and numbers I seem to recall quite easily. And then maybe again it what we pay attention to. 🙂
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Writing is hard to do. I find that each time I pick upa manuscript for any reason, I find myself changing the words. Just keep on doin’ it.
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I’ve been doing this stuff seriously since about 2006 and the learning never stops. I just learned (thanks to a comment on my blog) how to add an interactive Table of Contents. I was having a total brain-fart and the directions were super simple. Now I feel like an idiot but I got it done in about five minutes.
Good luck and keep going. Crit groups and betas come and go. Another challenge is finding several pairs of eyes willing to comb over your work when you need them to… but somehow it always gets done.
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