A couple of months ago, I was looking through a file of old writing when I discovered a forgotten short story I’d written years ago and never sent out. I read the story, standing at the open file drawer, and when I was done, I thought: “This is good.” My second thought was: “I should send it to my writing group and see if they think it’s good. They could do another round of critiques on it and make it really, really good.”
Then, in a bold moment, I thought: “No. This story is good enough. If I tinker longer, I risk shoving it back in the drawer again for another hundred years.” I sent it out, defying the advice I often give about always enlisting help with your art-making and marketing.
That story, Say His Name, won an honorable mention in Glimmer Train’s Short Short Story competition and will be published in Issue 12, the next issue, of the literary magazine PoemMemoirStory.
Sometimes the best advice is best ignored. Sometimes your own opinion is all that matters. Sometimes taking action to send your work into the world is more important than years of tinkering something to a possible perfection which can also result in the death or slow smothering of a work.
What action can you take today in the direction of your artistic ambition without consulting anyone but your own knowing self?