Tuesday's Inspiration ala Morris L. West

I find it interesting ro read these old essays by many writers I've read in the past. Often what they say relates to where we are as writers today. Sometimes reading them brings me to think of my own writing or about advide to those who are just beginning their careers. This quote is from an essay by Morris L. West and I remember reading most of his books many years ago. I may glean several quotes from this essay. Here's the first.

"Writing is like making love. You have to practice to be good at it." What a wonderful quote. Few people sell the first book they've ever written. Most of us have this stuffed in a drawer never to be seen by anyone. I was fortunate to sell my first novel, but not the first versionof it. The manuscript was returned and revised many times. And I learned from this. I also took time out from my writing career to return to nursing to help put 4 children through college. When I returned to writing, though I remembered many of the things I'd learned earlier I began slowly at first and did much re-writing. What I was doing was practicing so I could be good at putting the words on paper.

What about you? Did you write and re-write many times? Did you expect the first story from your computer to sell and make a million dollars or did you practice your craft, mastering each element until suddenly, you became good at what you wanted to do? Not perfect though. I look bacl on stories I wrote years ago and I can see where they need work. But they were the best I could do at the time. Sometimes they were purchased. Sometimes they were read, garnered nice reviews and sometimes were nominated for awards. They would never have reached this statis if I hadn't practiced and practiced over and over.