Foundation of Writing With Authority.

Any writer who values writing stories will value feedback. You’ll want to know what readers like about your writing, and the parts readers find troubling. One of the earliest comments I recall was about my ‘passive’ writing. Yes, I looked into this matter right away. What did this person mean by writing passive? Come to find out this meant I wasn’t writing with authority. Haha! Too many ‘I think’ and ‘maybes’. Interestingly enough, I respected this ‘professional editor’s’ feedback tremendously. And upon a full investigation, respected it even more. This was critical bouillabaisse I needed to know.

For starters, I personally found it more comfortable to write in third person. Later I learned this was what moved my characters away from me, or my personal perspectives. Now, of course this was merely a habit I adopted and leaned on. In other words, this was no high-end skill I picked up and employed.

BUT!!! I love adventurous writing challenges too. If it lands on my mental scope, I’ll go for it, which is how this passive writing observation opened a jar of maraschino cherries for me. I love those syrupy sweet bites. For the longest I’ve been trying to figure out how to write in the absolute without knowing what on a cranberry hill I’m talking about.  

Look, the other day I was told ‘we,’ my family, had no Native American blood in our family. I was like, “whaaadttt!!! You don’t say!” Actually, I didn’t even blink, but did chuckle to myself. Shucks, my birth certificate said the people who I called my parents all of my life, created me. But, do I know this absolutely for a fact? No. It wouldn’t surprise me to get that tap on the shoulder to be told I was born off the Mediterranean coast to Bebe and Bibbi. Tell me anything. If I wasn’t there and didn’t create it myself, then this will be a time when my writing will sound passive, the very reason I love writing fiction. There, the sky is not necessarily the limit, though make no mistake about it, loving writing challenges as I do, it also is important to avoid lazy creating, to take on this pure empirical-like illustrating. To accomplish this, to the degree of success I see, is similar to describing inspiration …or hope, a fixation that is felt but impossible to touch.  

Just finished reading 'Taking Flight' by Michaela DePrince …and mom, Elaine DePrince. I’m not sure if I’ve ever encountered inspiration and hope as brilliantly described in only a little over two-hundred pages, as in this memoir. Other thoughts here. 

#PassiveWriting #Inspiration #SolidFeedback #Storytelling #JustBlogged