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Saturday, October 25, 2008

Of imitators and shin-splits

A lot of people think there is a specific formula for getting published.

"If I write this way I'm sure to hit the jackpot!"

Wrong. It's easy to look at popular writers and try to mimick them, but editors aren't really interested in another Ted Dekker or Jerry Jenkins. That's because they have the best people in the world to write that style and it's Ted Dekker and Jerry Jenkins.

Editors are looking for new voices, new writers with their own style of writing. You have a superpower whether or not you know it. There is no in the world who can tell a story like you.

That uniqueness, at times your greatest asset, can be ruined when you try imitating other writers too much. Should we not learn from the masters?

I think we should take advise and examine succesful techniques, but remember who's doing the writing.


I took the ACT today. THAT was fun. This is the third time I've taken it, and I'm hoping I can score better than I did the other times. I went to work after testing and worked for about seven hours.

I've been fighting shin-splits for a while, but tonight they really kicked in. It hurt to stand, not to mention move around. There's my whine for the day. Anyone else? Who's got the biggest whine?

10 comments:

Edge said...

Ooh! Ouch! Shin splints SUCK! That's such a classic runner injury. My whine...it's definitely not the biggest, but I have to read Romeo and Juliet for the fourth time. I'm getting fed up with all the saccharine.

Araken said...

Alas, alack and forsooth, I...dislike Shakespeare...

Paris said...

Biggest whine. Hmmm. I've got one, but it's about my glasses clashing with my Halloween costume. Not that painful ;D

Echoes in Ink said...

I have a big whine-

I have seven writing assignments due by November first.

I like Shakespeare.

-Catey

Jamin said...

I never knew before the shin splits that I ran with my foot pointed in a little. :) Oh well.

I've never read Romeo and Juliet, but I have a feeling it's coming this year.

At least you don't have to work around a bunch of people wearing Halloween costumes, Paris. They're really scary when they're hungry.

7 assignments?! Wow...nice whine.

Kiwi da Fruit said...

My biggest whines (I'm having a hard time narrowing them down) are:
writing in school. I extremely dislike assigned writing.
I'm bored and tired of reading, listening to music, playing on the computer, watching tv, and sitting in hospital waiting rooms.
There. Thank you for posting this so I can go ahead and have a (very) short whine session. I feel like being grumpy. :-]

~Kiwifruit

Kiwi da Fruit said...

Oh, I forgot. I'm also tired of cold weather! Jamin, you're lucky to live where it's warm in the late fall/winter.
~Kiwifruit

Judi said...

hmm...biggest whine...i have a lot of them...where to start...
I have to return some books back to the library that i was only halfway done with...
I still don't have my learner's permit because my mom says i have to be up to a certain level of maturity and it's QUITE obvious that i haven't reached that level yet...
Nanowrimo is in three more days..and that's going to be hard...
And i'm waiting to find out if radiation took care of my youth minister's cancer..this is his second time...it's on my blog if you need ALL the details..
-Judi

Jamin said...

Acutally I'd rather the cold! I'm from Alaska, Kiwifruit.

Maybe I should try Nanowrimo, Judi. But I already did one of those this year! Maybe I'll get working on the sequel. Maybe.

Kiwi da Fruit said...

*sigh* Life is so unfair! You'd rather have cold weather, and I'd rather it was warm. Let's just switch places, please! Except I don't want the hundred-degree weather in the summer.
~Kiwifruit