oh to write like Dostoyevsky
One of my favorite novels of all time is Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It can be laborious to get through, but it is brilliant writing. Brilliant, I tell you! He explores the inner musings of a murderer whose conscience finally gets the better of him. Its a story of depravity and redemption and true love, told in a ... well, a brilliant way. Sometimes I am intimidated by Dostoyevsky. I'm intimidated by Edith Wharton, Jane Austen, Victor Hugo, Sue Monk Kidd and J.K. Rowling. How do they do it? How do they write people and events so well. How do they weave convoluted tales of complicated three-dimensional people, purely from their imaginations!? I wish I knew.
For I would like to be like them. But I fear I never will be ... and I often find that inferiority complex the very thing that keeps me from writing. Since I will never make Oprah's book club, why should I bother at all? And yet I love to write. I really do. I wish I had more time. This blog has given me an outlet of sorts. But lately I've been really wanting to practice my writing, hone my skills, even take some classes. Perhaps I'm not the author of America's next great novel, but that shouldn't keep me from writing. Its my favorite form of personal expression. In fact, my personality profile even states that I'm likely to express myself more clearly in writing.
So ... I don't know how much my writing here will pick up. But I will never get better if I don't practice, right? And I need to be writing about everything and nothing, see if I can make the everyday interesting, and the truly interesting come to life through words. I appreciate those of you who read this blog ... you motivate me, whether you know it or not. And you never know, maybe one day you'll be able to say, "I knew her when ... " and I'll give you tickets to Oprah the day I'm featured ....
(This weekend we're off to Death Valley for some camping ... I'll check back in next week!)
I love that you're my friend. And I think you absolutely could make Oprah's bookclub if you want to. Dostoyevs-who? Weston is the writer I admire!
Posted by
melanie |
6:34 AM