An Exercise In Vulnerability: Introduction to a novel
Writing is a process. Even if you were born with a natural gift for putting words on paper; like anything, practice makes perfect.
Now I am a long way from perfect- in fact I don't know that it's even possible for an artist to achieve perfection in their craft- but I do know that true artists will reach for that largely unattainable goal all the days of their lives.
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From the ages of 13-15 I completed my first long work; a 120 page novel I entitled The Hostage (about a teenage girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.) It was then that I learned one of the most valuable lessons of my career- always, ALWAYS, back up your work. Because I did not and the pages were lost when the old Emerson crashed in the middle of my Sophomore year of high school.
It was about this time that life got extremely busy for me because
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and writing took a back burner as I found myself on a quest for my soul mate.
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(Whom I found at age 18, but that's a story for another day.)
I did continue to write in those years, short stories and the beginning of long ones, but it was at age 22 that I finally sat down to complete one of the latter.
And because I had learned that most valuable lesson of backing up my work, I am fortunate to still have what I am now going to call An Exercise In Vulnerability.
No, that's not the title or the premise of this story, it's what my fans will need to understand before they embark on this journey. My writing style has changed significantly, even dramatically, in the years that have followed. Largely due to the next most valuable lesson I learned-
or
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What this means, to me, is that my writing was once influenced by all manner of things- in particular 'What Will My Devout Christian Parents Think?'. There were many voices in my head, making it hard to hear my own, and this tainted my process and stunted my growth.
If you are an artist and have yet to learn this incredibly important life lesson, let me be the one to tell you if thoughts like that one are influencing your work, you must shed them in order to attain the next level of inspiration and creativity .
True art comes from the very essence of an individual's heart and soul, and if this individual is- writing, painting, composing, singing, sculpting- with someone else's ideals in mind, there will be a distinct lack of integrity and honesty in the work and it will suffer greatly for it.
And while it is possible for the creation to still be good, it will always fall short of great until you learn to
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I still love the premise of this somewhat crippled first long work of mine, and as I re-read its pages I find that when I've completed my current projects I would like to revisit and revise. But since that isn't likely to occur until next year (as The Allies of Old and Today Again currently consumes my attention) I am presenting it to you in its original form.
They are the closest of friends though they have never met in waking life...
Coming Soon
Buy Your copy of The Allies of Old: Reborn HERE-
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=linnet+mclaughlin
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I've been a bit like that with some of my old works :) I started rewriting one in particular that I think had some good ideas and wasn't even badly written, it's just that my complete ignorance of everything in the entire world was blatantly obvious XD that's been backburned though as I concentrate on what I'm doing now.
Though one thing I have also noticed when going through some of my old stuff is that a lot of characters (or at least their concepts) and ideas have managed to make their way into my current stuff. Do you find this too? :D
my complete ignorance of everything in the entire world was blatantly obvious LOL!! Yep, that sums it up! I would also say that the writing isn't terrible, but just compared to some of my newer stuff it's extremely lacking.
What I find cool about it as I go through it is seeing the progression of my life as far as ideas. Also a bit cringe worthy- I came from an avid christian household and once upon a time I believed in all of the church stuff as much as a five year old believes in Santa- only I was far older than five before I began questioning in earnest and nearly thirty before I finally overcame the extensive brainwashing. That will be most obvious in this Y/A novel as my main character is clearly christian lol. But the fact that it is a Y/A book will make it a lot easier to rewrite than if I'd gone for something more mature actually. Also, there's a book two of this story that I didn't completely finish that I'm going to have to scrap almost completely- the direction is not one I would take now. But I know where I want to take it now and I'm actually a bit excited about it now that I've worked it out :)
LoL XD I think it's pretty normal for the early stuff to be cringe-worthy :D Yay for figuring out where you want to take the story :D
Very well put, SIS o' clock! I wholeheartedly agree with everything you said here. The struggle is with shutting off the voices to find your true, inner one. Is this the one you mentioned before that eventually inspired The Playground Series?
Definitely looking forward to this as always! Here I thought Born was already a look at your earlier style, now there's something that came about even earlier! I love reading stuff like that. It makes one appreciate everything that happened in between that influenced the change in style.
Hey, I missed you BROknows! I had to go on facebook to get my Jed fix, haha, so glad I did, that rocked LOL!
It has been so long since I read this book it's new for me too, I remember the highlights but it will be fun to get reacquainted as I post it- have definite ideas of where I can take it- it's really a two part book, but I don't like the direction I took the second one so that will be a total rewrite, this one however I can work with :)
Oh, and the characters of the playground were most definitely inspired by this story, though I also had written a short story series when I was nineteen that influenced the premise of it :)
Hahaha! Oh man, I hope that was enough to tide you over for the holidays. The lyrics of the song that synced was in Filipino so it didn't have the same effect for you, I guess, but it's roughly translated as "my only love, you are my home and my world"
Oh, and today is my two year steemiversary, working on a post right now...more collages haha! That's become my thing :)
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