Good Writing

Whether your story or poem is to be found in The New Yorker, The Paris Review or in your top desk drawer along with Emily Dickinson's work, no matter. Good writing is good writing. "Published" or "paid for" is different than "good". Likewise, bad is bad even if it's on the best seller list.

And, to make this even more frustrating, there are different kinds of "good". A successful author of literary fiction I know decided to write a Harlequin Romance and make some actual money. It flopped. No publisher would buy it. Even though she has all the technical craft / skill / art in the world, a Romance wasn't as, they say, "her".

Someone said,"Write what you can, not what you can't."

For a new or renewing writer, my experience tells me -- Don't be too quick to decide what you can and what you can't write. For me, those old devils "What should I write" and "What do other people think I should write" kept popping up.

Simultaneously, I needed to listen to what people connected with in my efforts, and to shake off then opinions of others. Maybe you don't. For me, Writing Groups have been so helpful in this regard. 

Try a lot of things -- short stories, poems, reviews, essays, whatever. The day will come when you can say to yourself, "This may or may not be Tolstoy, but this is my neighbourhood."

There is no single standard for "good". Except to say, what sells and what is good -- these are two different things. Sometimes they coincide, sometimes they don't.

As far as this blog has been concerned, I have tried to limit my self to "writing" rather than "getting published".

Best two pieces of advice I have ever received? "Avoid adverbs." and "Keep writing".