To Teach is to Learn Twice

I'm a logical soul.  Yes, I have bouts of irrational behavior just like the rest of humanity.  But in general I find comfort in rationale.  I will believe something because I've argued all the cons in my head and tried to poke holes in it.

So it's really no wonder that I enjoy teaching the violin so much.  On a daily basis it forces me to rethink and challenge and question everything I know about the instrument.  And after teaching the instrument for nearly seven years I've found that the saying really is true.  "To teach is to learn twice."  I was never attentive to musical details as a student.  Frankly, I didn't care.  But trying to instill artistry in young children has made me care.  I am forced to set the bar high or they will have nothing to aim for.

Interestingly enough, this same principle is now starting to trickle over into my writing.  I started a beta reading service about two years ago.  I had been offering basic reviews since 2010.  However, the beta reading forced me to take that to the next step.  I had to really think about all the little details that was making the story work or not work for me.  Was it the characters?  The dialogue?  The pacing?  All those little things that I had previously glossed over in my own writing now stood out as blaring errors.

Is this making me a better writer?  I'm not sure.  I hope it is.  But it is certainly making me a more attentive writer and that, I believe, is a solid step in the right direction.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review of "Ferryman" by Nigel Edwards

Summary: "A mythology grew up around the Ferrymen, fostered by a mystique which they wrapped around themselves. Some thought them amoral servants of a ruling elite, sanctioned to undertake work beyond legitimate resolution; others with more fanciful imaginations – or who were more devout, depending on your point of view – believed them emissaries of Evil, with a capital E." Could the Ferrymen become real in your lifetime? Should they? Read this thoughtful and disturbing near-future science fiction story and decide for yourself. Review: This was a fantastic short story.  "Well-written" doesn't even begin to describe Ferryman ; it's engrossing.  The simple, clean style perfectly highlights our precise  protagonist.  If this future Edwards presents to us does in fact become a reality, the character he describes is exactly the type of person who would become a Ferryman: highly competent with the hint of a god complex. What's  especially clever abou...
Read more

The Short Story Project

I was introduced to the short story genre in high school and simply fell in love.  It's completely different from reading a novel.  A novel is a lengthy involvement.  Character development and plot must transport you into the author's world as the story gradually unfolds. Short stories are distinct experience.  A good short story writer will make you care about the outcome of the characters even though you may not necessarily know anything about them.  It is a complete experience in one sitting; not too unlike reading a poem.  You read the short story/poem for itself and not for the hope that it will drag out for 800 pages and then maybe have a sequel. The short story genre has become a lost art.  When newspapers were at their height, a writer could make a name for himself by publishing a short piece of fiction every week.  Charles Dickens is a perfect example of this.  Since then, the literary world changed.  You have to have an age...
Read more

Interview with Author Hugh Howey

Welcome to Book Brouhaha! Why don't you start out by introducing yourself and telling us a little about "Wool." Thanks for having me, Alain! I suppose I'm just this normal guy who just wrote a little story called Wool. It's about a group of people who live underground. When their society turns on itself, it threatens all of mankind. In a way, it poses the conundrum of every revolution: How do you destroy an unjust social structure without the collateral damage being worse than the injustices were? I suppose the most interesting thing about me, personally, is that I lived on a sailboat while I was in college. This led to a career as a yacht captain, which sent me all over the Caribbean and the East Coast. I didn't start writing in earnest until my wife dragged me away from the sea and into the mountains. I've always loved the short form. I've been told that it isn't as marketable, even though science fiction has a long and glorious history of c...
Read more