eliminating competence
Jun. 18th, 2006 10:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eimarraOkay, not eliminating so much as transcending, I suppose.
It's hit me that several of my stories I've always known are just competent--I tend to refer to them as "workmanlike," actually. They're stories, they may not be technically flawed, but there's nothing special about them. So I'm retiring them. Why continue to send them out when I know they're nothing special? This includes one story on my to-be-reedited stack, and at least two that are currently out courting markets.
Enough!
Some quotes for thought:
"Nothing average ever stood as a monument to progress. When progress is looking for a partner it doesn't turn to those who believe they are only average. It turns instead to those who are forever searching and striving to become the best they possibly can. If we seek the average level we cannot hope to achieve a high level of success. Our only hope is to avoid being a failure." -- A. Lou Vickery
"Mediocrity is not allowed to poets, either by the gods or man." -- Horace
"Anybody who accepts mediocrity - in school, on the job, in life - is a person who compromises, and when the leader compromises, the whole organization compromises." -- Charles Knight
It's hit me that several of my stories I've always known are just competent--I tend to refer to them as "workmanlike," actually. They're stories, they may not be technically flawed, but there's nothing special about them. So I'm retiring them. Why continue to send them out when I know they're nothing special? This includes one story on my to-be-reedited stack, and at least two that are currently out courting markets.
Enough!
Some quotes for thought:
"Nothing average ever stood as a monument to progress. When progress is looking for a partner it doesn't turn to those who believe they are only average. It turns instead to those who are forever searching and striving to become the best they possibly can. If we seek the average level we cannot hope to achieve a high level of success. Our only hope is to avoid being a failure." -- A. Lou Vickery
"Mediocrity is not allowed to poets, either by the gods or man." -- Horace
"Anybody who accepts mediocrity - in school, on the job, in life - is a person who compromises, and when the leader compromises, the whole organization compromises." -- Charles Knight
no subject
Date: 2006-06-18 05:01 pm (UTC)I'm still submitting, still editing the things that I believe show promise, still writing. I'm just trying to cut out the deadwood here. :-)