PEN Center USA

I must have missed it in my creative writing education. Maybe I tuned it out because it seemed so obvious. Or maybe I submitted some work early on that made it seem like I understood how  all-important conflict is to our characters - like when I speak a small amount of a foreign language without an American accent and lead native speakers to assume I'm fluent, only to invite a barrage of speech I don’t fully understand. I never got the lesson.

In the perpetual time-management crisis that is my life, reading can get neglected. But I can’t let this happen. Here’s why.

Writers learn via three things that work in tandem: writing, getting feedback, and reading. Reading is key. It’s where the lessons learned through writing and feedback are encountered again and again, finally allowing the writer to “get it.”

If you’ve followed this blog, you know we’re coming to the midpoint of the program, and a midterm review of our work so far. So next week, we will submit our manuscripts, half-revised, along with supporting materials like we did for the initial defense. If the defense was any indication, I will once again be taken to task. It’s a bit nerve-wracking.

I’m happy.

It’s odd to be aware of this. Normally, if asked, I'd have to think about whether I truly am. I would normally say yes, but qualify it with frustrations lest I come off as some California boob, because, come on, everyone knows no one’s really happy.

But I genuinely am. It's such an elusive state, though, that I have to ask myself why.

I think it’s because of the writing.