Slogging through the muck. Oh yes, so familiar. In my writing classes, I always tell my students that they are a terrible judge of their own writing. The piece they apologize for and read with an unsteady voice full of self-doubt, is often beautifully written and full of vulnerability and rawness. What's admirable is their courage to share this part of their hearts at all. My favorite part is witnessing the shift from their timidity into a radiant smile and sigh of relief as they receive the feedback from the other students. They survived, and now they want more. And they learned that they often know nothing about the worthiness of their own writing.
It's the same for me when I am teaching. Students are always afraid to read their writing, and it often is beautiful. Same with the women in my writing group. I have at times been pleasantly surprised to learn that a piece of my writing moved someone. Still, I've been at this long enough to know when something I wrote doesn't meet even my lowest standard for sharing it.
Slogging through the muck. Oh yes, so familiar. In my writing classes, I always tell my students that they are a terrible judge of their own writing. The piece they apologize for and read with an unsteady voice full of self-doubt, is often beautifully written and full of vulnerability and rawness. What's admirable is their courage to share this part of their hearts at all. My favorite part is witnessing the shift from their timidity into a radiant smile and sigh of relief as they receive the feedback from the other students. They survived, and now they want more. And they learned that they often know nothing about the worthiness of their own writing.
It's the same for me when I am teaching. Students are always afraid to read their writing, and it often is beautiful. Same with the women in my writing group. I have at times been pleasantly surprised to learn that a piece of my writing moved someone. Still, I've been at this long enough to know when something I wrote doesn't meet even my lowest standard for sharing it.