Thursday, December 11, 2008

LEARNING TO FLUSH


You have no idea how difficult it was for me to shell out $200 to take that on-line writing class through Story Circle Network. It's not just that I am frugal-bordering-on-miserly. It's more that I am not currently contributing much of anything to the family coffers, so I feel especially guilty when spending money on anything that isn't a necessity. This expenditure means no haircuts or hi-lites for several more months (it's already been 6 or 8), no new plants for the garden, and most certainly, no new clothes any time soon. At first I wasn't sure if it was going to be worth the sacrifice. Now I'm thinking it might just be one of the smartest things I've ever done - next to marrying John, of course!

I have all kinds of books on how to be a better writer, but making myself sit there and wade through page after page of generic stuff, and then trying to figure out how to put it all into practice, is next to impossible. This class, on the other hand, focuses specifically on the one thing I really need to learn above all else: what to keep.

Each morning I sit here rambling on in my journal, and every so often, I see the makings of a good story appear on the page. But, along with the story I get lots of extraneous fluff. So, now I'm learning how to cull out the important stuff, and flush the rest. Neat-o!

P.S. Many thanks to www.pbase.com for the above image.

2 comments:

Linda Hoye said...

I just signed up for class at Story Circle as well! Good luck with yours!

Hill Country Hippie said...

Mine's already over - I took it back in the fall, but just didn't get around to writing about it until now! Still have one more bit to say about it, probably tomorrow.