Mistake-based Learning
Am I just extraordinarily stubborn? or does everyone learn primarily through screwing shit up?
I’ve decided all my outlines and cards and timelines are bunk and I need an actual honest to god synopsis to make sure I’m on track on this manuscript. I’m feeling good about it scene-by-scene, as I’m writing, then I walk away from the computer at night and lay in bed eyes with eyes wide open thinking Shit. Shit. Shit. I’m drifting. I’m on a tangent. I’m not sticking to the theme. What’s the theme? Shit. Shit. Etc.
So, synopsis time. I swear I frustrate me — it seems I am incapable of learning from a teacher. I need to break every rule and flaunt every piece of advice and prove to myself through protracted, brutal personal experience that the way they tell you how to do it really is the best and easiest way to do it. AGH. If I’d done a freaking synopsis 16 months ago….. grr.
And yet, ha. HA! Because it will be better now. I will be better now. Ha!
In early 2008 Michelle left a fulfilling career as interactive director in an integrated marketing agency to pursue her passion for writing great stories filled with fascinating, intense, real characters who will do anything necessary to achieve their dreams. She’s co-written the audio-play of a Louis L’Amour short story produced by Bantam and Beau L’Amour, worked as an executive assistant for a Hollywood publicist, taught English in Spain, and enjoyed the lofty title of Romance Director running the personals sections of a newsweekly in Los Angeles. She lives in Austin, Texas and spends her spare time adding poems to