Open to Suggestions

photo by Frameangel

Being open to suggestions does not mean you must use every one, but you should listen to and consider them.

A few years ago I attended a writing conference where I was able to submit my work ahead of time for critique. Everyone in my class was writing for the same audience, and our teacher was a published author in the same genre. Several people told me my main characters were too much alike. It was a good point. I wanted my readers to see them in the end as being very much alike, but I realized their personalities needed to be more distinct. There were several other helpful suggestions, also. I knew what I wanted to do with my story and where I wanted it to go, so that didn’t change. But, I could and did use the help to get me where I wanted to go with it.

Whether you are getting advice from a book or in person, take the helpful parts and leave the rest behind.

The poetry focus is an  Ottava Rima. The ottava rima stanza in English consists of eight iambic lines, usually iambic pentameters. Each stanza consists of three alternate rhymes and one double rhyme, following the a-b-a-b-a-b-c-c pattern. I’ve written one – it was fun to try!

Changes

Some changes in this life are bittersweet

We want to go, but yet we want to stay

Like separating the tares from the wheat

We want only the good at end of day

The happy ending’s not an easy feat

So plainly harder to do than to say

Yet, we will go and follow in His light

And we will go with happiness in sight