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Susan Sonnen

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Blogs by Susan Sonnen

Writer's Training
3/27/2010 8:20:45 PM




Regarding the craft of writing...


I feel as though I have been training today. Exercising. Pushing myself a bit beyond my limits.

It feels good. It feels like the day has been well spent. I want more days like this. Many, many, many more.

What did I do? Nothing terribly unusual. I determined to whip out a short story and poem that I had accepted as assignments for a content site. The short story was the difficult one of the two. I liked how it started, but then it began to die. Obviously, I then had to ponder how to get it moving again. I wanted this story finished within the hour, so it was a matter of fast thinking. This happened two or three more times throughout the story. I ended up with a tale that I felt good about. Good, but not great. So, I went ahead and published it on the content site. One task down, plus I have a story that I can continue to hone as I published it non-exclusively.

The little poem that I wrote was for a preschool graduation. As with the short story, I wanted to write it within a short time span. Knowing from past experience how embarrassing shoddy published work is, I worked quickly, but consciously, at creating an endearing and imaginative poem which I find delightful and did not hesitate to upload.

Were either of these my best possible work? No, probably not. Especially not the short story. But they were assignments that were successfully completed and merit an above average, if not high, mark in my opinion.

I also stepped out of my comfort zone and began writing a short story about vampires. I have never found vampires appealing, although I did greatly enjoy the book Dracula. So believe me when I say that this task was frightening for me. I had no idea where to begin, let alone what to work toward. By the third sentence, though, it was coming together in my mind. And do you know what? I really like it. It is another story for the content site (I never would have chosen to write a vampire story for pleasure.) and my goal is to complete and post it by tomorrow afternoon. Again, this will be a non-exclusive publication, so I have every intention of working and re-working this story time and again until I feel it is what I know it can be.

What have I learned from this experience? To sit down with the sparsest idea of a story and take it from there. It will happen. It always does. And the more I do this, the more easily the ideas flow.


Comments (2)

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