Zero Asks: How Good is Good Enough? · 6:17pm Feb 5th, 2016
So for those of you who don't know, From a Sparkle to a Spark is on Hiatus until I've finished rewriting its prequel. Since Spark's progression is dependent on how Shine is now, I couldn't keep going in good conscious less I box myself in with Shine.
Rose: Plus, rewrite is a bit of an understatement. That's a better description for what you did with Dusk. What you're doing right now is less rewrite and more complete overhaul.
I guess you're right. I tried some of the changes the EQD editor suggested, and they worked. So I decided to take Shine off the grid while I implant the rest of them. Not just that, but give a general expansion on what I have now. More Chronicles of Narnia and less Reader's Digest.
But that begs the question: How good is good enough? Even if I make the changes, I might still fall short of EQD. I started writing here to push my skills further, and the criticism was legitimate, that's not the issue. I guess I'm asking if it's really worth it.
The writer's block, the radical alterations, trying to find just the right words, sometimes that's difficult. And even though they're just words on paper, I won't deny there's a bit of attachment involved with some of these stories. Deleting pieces of text is like pruning a plant. It hurts, but it's ultimately good.
But am I really willing to push myself this hard and this far to have my work on their site? Right now, I'd have to say yes. But as time goes on, I feel like I'll be asking that question again and again.
Rose: Especially since this is just one story. What's gonna happen to the others?
We'll see about that.
Keep following your goals. You say you want to be a novelist, but here you are saying it might not be worth it. Do you think the great novelists got it right the first time? They came to be as good as they are through trial and error. And that's the phase you're going through right now. So please, don't give up. I know you can write amazing stories.
Honestly questions akin to yours would rise up no matter what you were/will do. "Is this really all right?", "What if I had done things differently?", etc, etc. I'm sure even famous authors and the like have them all the time as well. All you can do is answer them to the best of your ability each time they come up and try to go through life doing what you find to be worth the most (and by that I mean you personally, not someone else). Everyone's path through life is different, one of the few constants between these paths is uncertainty.