Why Authors Should Journal
Write it real…
That’s what a friend and a valued member of my critique group said to me last week. The chapter that had just been critiqued was “entertaining and well written,” my friend remarked, yet something was missing. “It needs more of you,” he’d said. “Write it real.”
This is exactly what you want from a critique group. Honest feedback that will help you bring your writing to the next level. Yet hearing these words is especially painful for a memoirist like myself, because really…it’s all about me. (that’s what the genre implies) I think my friend was saying my work needed less fluff… more emotion, more authenticity. In my heart of hearts, I knew he was right. But no matter what your genre, how does one go about “writing it real?”
