clueless

I have a confession to make.

I don’t have much of a clue. :dork:

This won’t come as a surprise to some of you. :razz:  But I thought I might as well be honest about it.
There is a marked absence of something in my blog posts, both here and on my own blog, that I see quite a bit of elsewhere. 
I do very little in the way of writing advice.  Suggestions.  Recommendations.  How-to posts.  Ways to get published.  And there’s a very good reason for that.

I don’t have a clue.

Does that sound like a strange confession from someone who professes to be a writer?  Yeah, well, it sounds odd to me too.
When I was younger, I gave violin lessons to the children of my friends.  No problem.  In step-by-step detail it wasn’t hard to teach how to do this, how to play that, how this effect was produced, and what results they could expect.  But being technically proficient doesn’t make you a great violinist.  It’s a certain unknown quality, a feeling for the music, an affinity for the instrument that makes one exceptional.

A bit of the same with art.  I learned a few techniques, taught myself to handle some of the materials, and could probably make suggestions on applying them to a drawing or painting.  But that won’t make that painting good, possibly not even interesting.  It’s the artist’s own unique vision that makes the work extraordinary.

I’m a little in awe of authors who have it down to a fine science.  They can run down the GMAC at the drop of a hat.  Tick off the differences between romance/romantica/erotica/women’s fiction/mainstream/scifi/urban fantasy in the blink of an eye.  Know exactly where the black moment/sex should fall in the story well in advance.  What to cut, how to hook, how to dissect, and how to keep from going overboard.
(And no, the fishing metaphors hadn’t occurred to me until I wrote them, lol).

It must make the writing a lot easier.  But it doesn’t make it yours.

Learning craft is one thing.
Mastering your craft is something else.

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