A good story is like a well crafted slide. It twists and turns, all-the-while pleasantly delighting you untill you reach the end.
I like good stories. I like a good plot. I am a writer, thus I design litterary slides for the delight of myself and hopefully someday to entertain the masses.
On that accord, I think that's why I'm so slow an editor. I first craftt the words and lay down a structure, then I slided down that ride by listening to it with Dragon Natural Speaking's audio software, then I recraft a (hopefully better) slide.
If you think about it terms of amusement park rides, a.k.a. slides, its all about paced times of antisipation, thrills, building towards the next breath stealler, in one smooth ride that makes you happy that took the time to take it.
(Writers need to be able to craft a more elaborate slide than this!)
Craftsmenship matters. And I don't even consider myself a "gifted" writer. Heck, back in the 8th grade I was disallowed to continue in a upperlevel creative English class because I was deamed not good enough. And then their's the slush file I have of all the writing contests I've submitted to that told me that I wasn't good enough to win. Sure, they all said it in a "nice" way--don't wanna offend anyone in this politically correct environment where eveybody's a winner because they partisipated. But let's be honest, I didn't win those contests I lost out to someone else, be they a ghost partispant (where the contest makes up the winner who sounds like a real person with a real story but isn't) or an actual writer.
Losing can either make you bitter or make you better. It's done both to me. Made me very skeptical about writing competions and their ability to help writers get their work made. But it's also made me wanna try harder to. I lost out for some reason. There's a whole in my game. Is it as obvious as Shaquille O'Neil's weakness at the freethrow line? Is it height, like the preception that Russell Wilson can never be a Hall of Fame quarterback because he doesn't drop back and throw in a tradion manner such as Tom Brady and Payton Manning? Do I show flashes of emense tallent like either quaterback Jeff George or Jay Cutler, but lack the intangibles that help that tallent translate and win out on the field?
I dun-know. All I know right now is I'm sore. Sent most of Saturday and part of Sunday splitting and put wood away. And as one of my weekend feats of strenght I pulled out a pesky stump for a fallen willow tree out in our family septic field. Pulling a stump sounds easier than it is. I had to dig out to find the roots then either chop them off with an ax of the chainsaw. By the time I widdled the stump down it was nothing more that tire filled with wood. Probably weighed arround 145 pounds when I He-Man'ed it out of the excavation hole I dug. Fuck it. It's out now, and it's getting thrown off to the side so the stump inside the tire can rot its way out.
But I love writing. And I love slides. So I go over and over my work again trying to build a better slide. Don't know if I'll ever make the perfect slide, but I think I'm capable of crafting slides that are worthy to be ridden. I just wish I was faster and better than I am. No, I don't think I'm Godl's gift to writing. Rahter, I look to Him to take my efforts and make them better than I'm capable of. To God be the glory! God is the ultimate writer. I, E.C. Henry only write fictional characters; whereas God writes great stories into the individual lives of people in real life.
Alway honor God in the process. He is the one who gives you the abitlity to even try to make great art.
E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, Washingon
P.S. I am having a blast editing the epic fantasy novel. Just finished re-invisioning a very interesting action sequence in the open dragon fight in the Prolog. Also making good progress in fine-tuning chapter 1. So much more work to do, I know. But I'm crafting in LOTS of good stuff. Someday I hope all my hard work pays off.
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