Thursday, November 12, 2009

Faith, trust, and a little compliment from my teacher

Ok, so I know that doesn't rhyme. But it (hopefully) gets the point across of how simply "magical" compliments can be. For me, at least.

I was having an okay day today. Essentially i was suffering from the usualy tiredness, combined with the wish to be at the beach (it was cloudless today) combined with the average stresses of a college student. I took a short nap before my creative writing class, and then went, sleepy and wishing I could have just slept longer.

My teacher stopped me before class and gave me an amazing compliment on the short story I had previously agonized over. Most importantly, she told me to "keep at it." (Referring to writing.) Now, for someone who hopes to be a published novelist, this was high praise. Especially because my teacher is generally very cynical, not shy about putting people's writing down, and has taught countless English and writing classes, and has had a lot of her own work published. I was scared to death about what she would say about my story.

While she gave suggestions for improvements, she said my story was "actually quite good." She thought I had grown up in the South, where my story takes place, when in actuality I have never been there, that it read like a "Southern folk tale," and that she was "very surprised, this is not the usual type of story that students turn in."

Let me tell you, I was elated! It makes me want to write even more.

It is really amazing how delicious compliments are. I'll be tasting this one for months.

2 comments:

  1. OH BETH! This is so great! I know that I always have LOVED your stories! CANNOT WAIT to read it!

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  2. Where is this story? Email me a link 'ya hear?

    ReplyDelete