Have you had a mentor in your life? Would you like one? For what? Have you been one? How? Everyone could use a little more help in their lives, can you see where you could be a mentor now?
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I want a writing mentor. I do. I want to be able to contact a more experienced writer and ask the dumb questions without worry. Questions like:
I am having trouble with my plot. Is this common?
Do you think I'm being too hard on myself because I want to rewrite this
chapter a 6th time?
Can you talk me out of throwing this away? I'm almost finished but I think
it's a complete piece of...um, work.
I don't need someone to edit. I need a sounding board for writing. But from the looks of these questions, I need a therapist.
I have mentors and peers in other areas of my life. God has blessed me with peers and mentors in the autism community. It took a long time and it came in an unexpected place, namely the internet. But I appreciate my community and try to be encouraging to others.
The last question made me laugh.
"can you see where you could be a mentor now?"I am a mother. I mentor all the time, in the car, in the store, in the house, in the yard. All I seem to do is mentor. I'm not the best, but right now, it's my calling and God is helping me.
If I were a better Christian, I would say that God is my mentor and He teaches me all things. That is absolutely true and I know that He will continue to do so. To paraphrase something I heard elsewhere, I would like God to send me a mentor with skin.
5 comments:
An interesting piece, I particularly like the closing words.
This was a pleasure to read. You sound like an excellent mentor as a mom. *grinning* at "mentor with skin." And as for writing -- I understand. I think there's never an end to its learning curve. Like life itself, it's quite a journey!
Mothers are indeed full time mentors. I right there with you.
I hope you find a writing mentor. I'm in a writer's group that has been brutally honest. My work has benefited from their critiques.
As for those questions--yes, it is very common to have trouble with plotlines. No, you are not being too hard on yourself by rewriting repeatedly. I edit my writing until I'm sick of looking at it. And then I edit some more. Throw it away? Never throw anything you write away. You might refine it, you might abandon it, you might scavange parts of it for some other project, but don't throw it away.
A delightful piece - The final line is absolutely terrific. I guess that periodically, we all seek a mentor.
I like the idea of God sending a mentor with skin :)
I started writing by prompt to get feedback and to give it. It's hard to read everything and give it the time it needs. I tend to be solitary but I think I need a mentor with skin too. Someone that will tell me that something I wrote is garbage or that it's mostly garbage except for this and that gem, and all the other things you mentioned.
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