Day 343 of the 365 Days of Blogging

The author/publisher,
Dane F. Baylis

YES, I HAVE BEEN CALLED A CURMUDGEON. SO?

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I'm not always the most outgoing SOB. I don't let many people in and, other than with my immediate family, I keep my emotional expressions to my art. (Unless someone or thing flat pisses me off.) I take my art more seriously than most people take breathing. I am my most severe and damning critic.

 

So, when I receive the inevitable rejection notice, the best thing I can do is sit right down and take a long hard look at what it is I thought was so irresistible when I sent it out. Now, I'd love to be able to say that what I find to tinker with is always content, but that would be a fib. The first things I find are the mistakes of form. Adjectives and adverbs, the 'ly' words. Passive voice, the dreaded 'ing' verbs. Dropped quotations, missed indents, the occasional misspelling. (No, spell-check doesn't catch them, either.)

 

Then comes considerations of content. This sentence is awkward. Could I have said that better? Am I telling or showing in that paragraph? Why didn't I catch these before I sent it out? Because I was already on the fifth or sixth re-write and had lost the concentration or was just plain burnt out on a particular tale.

 

So, here I sit, hammering away at old ground but, with enough time between the last incarnation and this, I can see with fresh, if not new, eyes where things need work. Does it please me that I'm in a retrograde when I have any number of projects pending? Hell, no, but this is what being a professional means to me. It didn't work the last number of evolutions? Well, let's see if we can make it better and try once again. That's the whole deal in a nutshell. Also why I can be just a little hard to get along with at times. Now do me a favor, and close the door behind you. Okay?

 

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Meanwhile...live, love, write, and rewrite, and reformat, and check the style manuals.

 

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page. You can leave comments in the form below. I can be reached directly at dbaylis805@gmail.com . You can also find links to some of the sites I visit from time to time on the right. I'm also looking for submissions to the Your Work/Your Love page. Authors retain all rights.

 

Tomorrow,

 

Dane F. Baylis

Author/Publisher.