📌 Where Are You in Your Stories?

Leaning into *your* particular weirdnesses!

I’ve written about my interest in Mark Rothko’s work before, and last week @dailyrothko posted a quote that struck me.

If that’s too hard to read on your phone, through your Google Glass, or in the metaverse you work in, etc., though:

After a year's rest from working on this large painting, Rothko said, "I can't recognize myself any longer in this particular painting, and therefore I must take it up again. I am forced to continue working on it... When I recognize myself in a work, then I realize it's completed."
- from a conversation transcribed by Sydney Janis, June 17 1953

It seems it’s the same struggle for an artist to know when a painting is “done” as it is for us to know when a written story is.

Still—where I get hung up is wondering why a painter doesn’t need a critique group or editor, given they are so essential to writers. (I’m not saying one or the other is better! But…it feels strange to me; I can’t quite wrap my brain around it.) Why is a painting so much more solitary, not only to create—as writing is—but to “finish”? Is it more about a message sent than a message received, compared to the written arts? Then again, I suppose the publishing industry demands the extra layers; one does not need an editor or critique group to send a letter (or to write a Substack 😜), after all.

But I wonder if, for writing, we might amend Rothko’s thought into something like:

“When I recognize myself in a revision, it’s ready to be shared. When others can also recognize themselves in my work, it’s ready for publication." (?)
- from an Elayne feverdream, probably

There’s a well-known illustrator exercise where you list 100 Things You Love to Draw (here’s a sample list from illustrator Maithili Joshi). The idea is that once you’ve identified these heart-rippling items, it should be infinitely easier to infuse those things in your work and your portfolio, and doing so will attract more fulfilling projects, as well as your tribe.

What a good thing for writers to do, too! I have created my list of 100 Things I Love and a much smaller (but also important list) of things I detest.

I am not quite sure what the detest list is “useful” for, other than they are at least things I am not ambivalent about! But there is *something* there that rankles me, and that’s important to notice. I say: anything besides ambivalence is fair game!

Most of us want to <ourname>ify what we create. But if you are one who shies away from injecting your own experience into your writing, consider:

Every single living person has a unique mixture of experiences and personality traits (to say nothing of culture, language, and so much more). With thousands, possibly millions, of other writers out there—the more you infuse your stories with yourself, the more unique they will be.

And isn’t that the whole kit and kaboodle, really?

How do you know when something is ready to share—either with your critique group or with the world?

Your “in a reflective mood” friend,

Elayne

My posts are always free, but my focus isn't; if you found this post interesting or useful, please consider ♡'ing it, so I know. Thank you!