From the Editor: Growing Through Change

Writers have one thing in common: a first manuscript. A work that once made us proud, but now lives in a dark and dusty drawer, or languishes on an old floppy disk, never again to see the light of day.

Some writers destroy their early works. After all, no one wants to be embarrassed by clumsy sentences, plotless plots, or dialogue so cheesy you could top a pizza with it. Yet many of us hang on to those terrible, horrible, no-good pages.

Why is that?

I believe that we keep our first manuscripts to remind us how far we’ve come on the writing path, and how much we’ve grown and improved as writers. The more we write, and the longer we write, the better we become. Some improvements are subtle; others are as obvious as flashing neon lights. But they are changes nonetheless. Change is what helps us to grow.

One of the changes happening here at Writing from the Peak is the addition of some new columnists. Writer and creative writing coach Deb McLeod will be joining us as a regular columnist, as will author DeAnna Knippling, whom many of you already know. All of our columnists have interesting things to say about writing and the writing life, so be sure to stop by. Learn, change, grow.

Happy writing!

Robin Widmar

Managing Editor, Writing from the Peak