The year marches on to the month of March, so it's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post. Learn more about the IWSG on their website or Facebook page.
Our hosts this month are Diedre Knight, Tonja Drecker, Bish Denham, Olga Godim, and J.Q. Rose. (Unfortunately, I don't have working links for Bish and Olga.)
Here's our question for March: Have you ever read a line in [a] novel or a clever plot twist that caused you to have writer envy?
It's hard for me to pick a specific example of something that caused me to have writer envy. The best thing I can come up with is Patricia McKillip's writing style, but that's the poetic nature of her prose and not limited to a single line. However, while I enjoy reading her work, her style is so different from mine that there's no point to envying it. It's something I can admire without being able to imitate. Even if I could write like her, her style might not fit the stories I want to tell.
In general, I think if you're struggling with your current work, it's easy to be envious of anything else you read because you see the finished work, not the other author's process in bringing the story to life. Comparing a draft to a finished work isn't fair, but we do it all the time.
Do you have a particular author or story you're envious of? Feel free to share in the comments.
3 comments:
Good point - what we are reading is the finished piece and not the struggles the author had along the way.
I never thought about that fact--that we're reading the finished product. Every author struggles.
Some writing styles are amazing, but as you said, they might not fit what you are writing. Or you!
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