This week we read and discussed more from writing down the bones. I mentioned in my last post about the book how much I enjoyed reading from it and how relate-able she is in her stories.
For this weeks discussion I chose "Don't use writing to get love" being a writer in my free time I completely understand where she is going with this. I often give my poems or stories to people looking for feedback and I get " It was good I really liked all of it" or " I like the way this made me feel". While being able to get positive feedback is always nice, I find myself wanting to know what my readers didn't particularly like. Or even if they felt what I was trying to get them to feel. It's nice to have at least some emotion sparked, but is it what I was looking for? It is in a persons, especially a writers nature to look for love and acceptance but also criticism, this point is something Goldburg really hammers home.
She also makes a big point to go with your gut instinct and to find that balance of humility and confidence. If you aren't in the least bit confident, how will you move forward? But, that isn't to say that if you are overly confident you'll make it to the moon or wherever you may be trying to go. you need to be able to take good and bad criticism without going off the deep end or being cocky. Taking positive criticism is one of the hardest things we must learn to do.
I also liked her chapter " Be specific" the need for precise details is very prominent in many writing pieces. Many writers will generalize allowing the reader to make the details up along the way. What they don't realize is that many readers love being shown the scenes that are in our heads. Having a picture painted with a thousand words is much more satisfying than having a picture placed in front of us. Or even having twenty words thrown about giving us the gist but not that wonderful scene.
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