I’ve been following along with James’ writing essays on whateverville and thought I’d link them here.  I recognize in myself many of the mistakes he describes, that I’ve either made in the past or continue to make.  My worst writing errors are probably:

• Writing stuff with generic scenery
• Writing stuff in which I’m too subtle and the reader has no clue of the character’s motivation
• Writing stuff where I have no clue of the character’s motivation
• Refusing to spend the time and energy to rewrite what could be a publishable story if only I’d help it along.

And there are probably others.  While some of these will be an uphill battle to fix, and others may require a change in priorities, it’s helpful to take them out, claim them as mine, and put them on my mental ‘fix it’ list.  I found James’ essay’s insightful, often funny, and generally right on the nose.  I’ll look forward to the blogs of fellow writers he’s invited to sound off.

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