I don't know much today, but I do know this.

[truepenny]

The thing about writing is, it's learn by doing. And sometimes what you learn is: Well, I won't do that again. But you have to learn that by doing it, and doing it as well as you can.

You can't cheat, in other words, and other people can't do your learning for you. There are no rules you can memorize so as to win every time. You can't skip to the back of the book to look up the answers. You have to go through--and I do mean through--every obstacle on the course.

And you fall down and get dirty and make an awful fool of yourself. (The world may or may not be watching.) And the only thing to do is pick yourself up, maybe make a mental note, Well, I won't do that again.--though maybe not--and throw yourself at the next thing in your path.

And it doesn't matter if the endboss is four times your size and wielding nunchucks made out of barbed wire and a pair of engine blocks. You still have to try and take that fucker down.

Learn by doing.

It's all we've got.

Comments

[albionidaho.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the excellent advice, as always!

And I adore your userpic.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Yes. In the immortal words of Wendy Cope (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~morgan/cheryl/poems.html#rondeau):

...She often said
She'd never make the same mistake again;
She always made a new mistake instead.

[arby-m.livejournal.com]

Damn your eyes, it's too true. I keep looking for the cheat sheet in vain, and spending a lot of time whining to myself, "But I don't wanna look stupid!" This is time that could be so much better spent 1) getting over myself and 2) stumbling thru mud until I get a CLUE. (Or clew, as the case may be.)