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Ask for Directions

July 9, 2015 By Erin Beasley

Ask for Directions--Write RightIt’s okay if you don’t know which way to go. You can always ask for directions. – Write Right

When you don’t know what to do with your work, ask for directions. You don’t have to have all the answers. No one ever said a piece of fiction or a painting had to come out perfectly formed.

Every draft, every artwork is messy. It takes crafting to get it from the initial stage to finished product. It requires patience and humility.

You reach the end of yourself. The page or the canvas stares at you, a slavering, one-eyed beast. It threatens to devour you whole and destroy everything surrounding it. You stumble back.

You don’t know what to do, which way to go or turn. It’s okay. You aren’t alone. Help is available. Turn to the people you trust, the people whose opinions you respect.

Ask them for feedback. Listen. Let their words settle. Discount nothing; accept nothing. Wait. View their words as points on a map. Choose one that seems right and head toward it. If it turns out to be wrong, you can always head in a different direction.

Just don’t freeze in place. You have to move if you want to survive. The one-eyed monster is out there, waiting to pounce. Ask for directions and follow them, one of them. Get moving.

Image: Benson Kua (Creative Commons)

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Filed Under: Writing Life Tagged With: community, criticism, directions, feedback, writing

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