Back on the Blog Chain: Making Mistakes

Time again for another Blog Chain post! (For my new followers, I participate in a Blog Chain dealing with writing topics about twice a month.) For this round, Laura asks us this question:

Regarding your writing career, what’s the best mistake you’ve ever made and why?

This is a difficult question to answer. I've certainly made plenty of writing mistakes, but it's hard to judge which one's the "best." I'm not sure if this one is really a mistake, but it's the best one I can think of.

I started out writing novels, but at one point I got an idea for a short story. About 2000 words later, I took the story to a workshop at a convention. (This particular workshop was led by my writing mentor.) I read it out loud and waited for comments. And boy, did I get them. I don't remember all of them, but there were a lot about the plot and the execution of the story. The other people took a constructive approach to their comments, so it could have been much worse to take. But I wrote down all their comments and talked with some of them afterward. Ultimately, I decided that the story wasn't working and needed a new approach, so I trunked it. I like to say that the story died but the writer lived. After surviving that crit experience, I've gone on to participate in other crit groups. I'm also happy to say that I've gotten better at writing short stories, though I still prefer novels. I just wish my mentor had lived long enough to see me sell a story, though.

If you need more inspiration to cope with your writing mistakes, check out this video:



If you'd like to read more about other writers' mistakes, check out Shannon's post before me and Eric's upcoming post tomorrow.