Word Pirates

I enjoyed what Stephen Corey at Georgia Review had to say about the short story in the most recent issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

If you are truly serious about doing distinctive work that will make its mark, slow down.

A great poem or story or essay is not a line on a vita, a selling point in a job interview, or a ticket to tenure. Any person who writes one great poem or story or essay per year for twenty years will take his or her place on the short list of the finest writers of all time. Slow down. Read voluminously, year after year, both for pleasure and to be reminded of all that you must not do, and all that you must exceed, in order to make your own special, indelible mark.

That’s a good reminder that writing should be a construction of a work of art, and sometimes that means taking the time you need to really finish it. As long as, you know, you are actually working on it and not, say, watching re-runs of Family Guy on Cartoon Network… (or blogging…).

~ Joy