A Good Sign

Growth

I hear it's a good sign of growth when you can look back at your old writing and see it needs a lot of help.  I am finding that's very true.  I look back at some of my early stuff and wonder where the life and power is.

But I'm also finding the same can be true when I look back at books I loved as a child.  I'm rereading a novel I read over and over when I was younger.  That book shall remain nameless, but I'm finding that the writing is flat, lifeless, drones on, and could really use a good edit.  I even found a few typos.  I look at the world of published books and often find the same is true of what's available today.

On occasion, though, I find that book, that writer, that makes me go, "Wow, I wish I could write like this."  Fresh metaphors, potent verbs, and very very few [if any] adverbs or to be verbs.

A Role Model:

When I first read the Harry Potter series, I was like so many others, wowed by her writing and the way the characters leaped right off the page to become someone near to everyone's heart.  Then I read some reviews, most notably Stephen King's critique of Rowling's generous use of adverbs.  I also learned more about writing myself.  I recently reread the series and saw how Rowling personifies that growth.  Her early works are still good, vivid, and engaging.  But they grow and mature until, in my view anyway, they become quite literary and something I could see teaching in college one day.  Her symbolism, metaphor, and allusion are all impressive.

Incidentally, the fifth Potter book reviewed by King in his article [#orderofthephoenix] has totally changed for me since I learned what it is to mourn deeply.  Unlike those childhood books, this one has gotten better.  The first time I read it, Harry seemed angry, so much so that I ceased to understand him.  Then I lost my baby, and I understood Harry so much better.  Harry personifies grief in his anger.  He is angry at more than Umbridge and Voldemort.  He's angry at himself for outliving his mentor.  He's angry at the universe for continuing as normal when everything for him has changed.  For me, the fifth book has become the thestral of the series.  Before, I couldn't see it.  Now, I can.  It has become if not my favorite book then a close second.  

Maybe one day, when I revisit my early works I'm looking to publish soon, I will see how I've developed as a writer.  It's possible they will get better in my mind, but I hope not.  I hope I grow enough that I see all the flaws.  As has been said before, if you're not constantly improving as a writer, maybe writing is not the field for you.