The Jungle of Writing

I read somewhere that an unknown first time author trying to get published has a 1:15,000 chance. A 1:15,000 chance! Not exactly what one would call incentive, is it? Of course, the purist would say, "It's not about publication. It is about the need to write, the need to express oneself, the need to bleed words upon a page, blah, blah, blah". And that's part of it, sure.

But, who doesn't want someone to read your work and confirm it's worth in general? Or want someone with fresh, unbiased eyes to catch the awkard phrase here or the wasted sentence there? If you can honestly say, "Not me. I write for the pure enjoyment of putting words to page and I don't care if no one ever lays on it!" Then I say to you, "Good for you! You win the award for purity...Now, get off my page. This is not for you. Take your hummus and your hemp weaved shirt and go caligraphy somewhere else."

This page and accompanying blogs are for those writers struggling to write something that someone will read and mutter, "Damn! That was a good read!". We want our writing out there and we want the feedback (good or bad) to encourage us to refine ourselves, search for the perfect word in that one sentence out of our large vocabularies.

It is said that when writing "Madame Bovary", Gustave Flaubert took five years because every word of every sentence had to say something. Wow! right? I don't hope to write as he did (I just plain don't have the patience for it), but to be able to write a short story or novel sans need for skimming? Ah, now that is obtainable!

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~Karen