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7.15.2006

Don't Complain

Upon completion of this introduction to fiction writing class, I have learned quite a bit. Of course I've learned about fiction writing, as was expected. What wasn’t expected was the actualization of a theory. We complain about what we see, or don’t see, in ourselves

Over the course of the last few months, I've kept an open ear to comments about my writing. This is what happens in a workshop class. Most of the students gave great critiques and they are much appreciated. Now looking back at the work that needs to be turned in for my portfolio, I find myself realizing the only comments I made to people were pertaining to something I usually do, or something that I wish I could do.

For example: to another student, I wrote they need to express more visual detail or else the reader isn’t allowed to image what is happening, it doesn’t play like a movie in the audience’s head. When it came time to write my own story, guess what was missing… the details. I wrote a story involving a masquerade ball [you’ll get details of this in due time] and yeah I described the mask but they didn’t jump off the page. When I read through the critiques of my story, people made genuine comments… and I noticed when they thought something didn’t quite work out right or wasn’t described in the best fashion, they wanted it to be described in the language they usually use or a language they wanted to use. Someone commented on my sentence structure and how I stuck to a particular style. Well, that person just happens to have the same style when they write. It appears I am not the only one that is hypocritical.

If you don’t believe me, think about when you complain about something. Is the complaint merely about yourself and you’re just projecting it onto something else? Someone was going on a tirade about how they hate people who can’t talk shit to another’s face [or have the balls to say something to a specific person, merely beating around the bush], and what do you know… that same someone just comments on their away message (for aim) [but then again, there’s always another side of the story…]. Hypocritical, I know, but I have yet to see someone who isn’t at one point or another… don’t think you’re not part of this too. Practice what you preach. Or… [see title]

1 comment:

Mr.Carl.Lee said...

"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."
- Carl Jung