The Many Adventures of Rich Inman

So I was just deep into my writing for the NoNoWriMo when the call of nature hit me. Wait… I should preface this with a thought that I had last night. The thought went something like this: When I write a first draft, I’m just trying to make sure that later ,while I’m doing my first draft that I understand what I was writing. This thought was amazingly freeing. It meant that all the bad grammar and excessive wordiness that plagues my first drafts were okay.

Alright, so back to the call of nature. I was on the can, reading Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of  the Craft when I came across this nugget (wrong nugget sicko) that made me say, holy crap (pun intended)! It said, “when you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story… When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.” Rarely do I come to some sort of revelation through sheer experience and then have my revelation resounded back at me through the words of a master.

So, I guess what I’m trying to say here is that, when you’re writing a first draft, let it be wordy. Let there be bad word choices or too long scenes. Because it’s the second draft where you’ll go through and tighten that all up. And if you’re trying to get published like I am, you’re going to do at least three drafts before a submission anyway.

-Rich

Recently I’ve been thinking about, well… The past. About all those people who underestimated me, who said that I wouldn’t amount to anything. We all have had people like that in our lives. Like my fifth grade teacher who told my parents that I was slow and needed to be put on the short bus if you know what I mean. Thinking back at my time in Marion Military Institute, from where I graduated with several honors (it’d be far too self serving to mention them individually here, but you get the point), I wish I could go back and shove all that back in her face. But I suppose that even if I could do that it wouldn’t make me feel any better (mainly because I don’t really care all that much anymore) and that teacher probably doesn’t even remember me anyway. Over the years there have been many more people who have thought little of me, mainly – I think – because people feel as though tearing other people down builds themselves up.

In the last few years I’ve tried to be a person that can recognize the strengths in others and compliment them on those strengths, even encourage them. In doing so I have felt far more satisfied in the kind of person I am when I see the light in others’ eyes when I build them up. It’s amazing to see the look on their faces when they see that I truly mean it. At first it was strange, because I felt like I was tearing myself down. But the more that I continued looking for the good in people, the more I found people looking for the good in me. Granted, it takes a lot of confidence in the person that you are to be able to give that away, because I still get it thrown in my face a lot.

It’s kind of like paying it forward, even though I don’t like the idea of paying it forward. Why should I wait for someone to do something good for me before I do something good for someone else? So, instead I think I’ll try to do good for people around me, regardless of how they repay that goodness. And, I’ll do it because of who I am, not who anyone else is, or what they think of me.

-Rich