I have no problem accepting feedback that can help me improve my writing skills and the work I do for other people. I know that no one’s perfect and even the most reliably good writer can miss the mark now and then.
A few weeks ago I blogged about the problem I was having writing effective ledes for a publication I write for regularly. The past few months have been a struggle for me, so I was just thankful to get my assignments done, let alone done well, but I realize this is no excuse.
So I pulled myself out of the lurch I’d fallen into, and have actively worked on writing snappier, more succinct ledes for the projects I’ve done since then—even for the other editor I regularly write for, whose comment on my last story was “Great job on this!” So, really, it is about perception…every publication has its own tone and chord that the writer has to strike just right.
But still—I’m grateful because this other editor helped me to “wake up” and write a little more actively. This just goes to show that when you’re physically, mentally, or emotionally drained, your work really reflects it!
What about you? What shakes you out of your mental doldrums?
Sometimes - especially when I can't think up a good lede, because I can't get moving on an article until I've written a lede - I have to get up, get moving or otherwise switch gears for a while to get the creative juices flowing. I might switch from project to project, I might run downstairs and get a load of laundry started or, as I did just this afternoon, I might jump up from my desk chair and make my bed.
ReplyDeleteI especially have to do it when I'm switching from one *type* of writing to another. Journalistic to fiction. Fiction to corporate. Corporate to journalistic. My mind has to switch gears, too, and I have to completely let go of the grip my brain has on one project to move into a project of a different type.