I think that I’m a good writer. It’is probably useful to me to think that, but unfortunately, I know, or perhaps better, I know that unfortunately, it is not true. I am a lousy writer. I am in the middle of draft 16 of the book, which means I have read over every word of it 15 times, and I am still appalled at some of the ways I have expressed things, still in the 16th draft. I am having to make a lot of changes, and it’s embarassing to think what some of my reviewers have had to wade through. I am a lousy writer.
But hopefully it may be like driving. I am a lousy driver. However, I’ve always thought that being aware that I am a lousy driver has made me a pretty good driver, because I know that I need to be very careful. Yes, I do drive pretty fast, but I drive fast very carefully.
So maybe I am a good enough writer to be able to recognize how lousy some of the stuff I write is.
doug
“It’s a good man who knows his limitations.”
Dirty Harry (aka Clint Eastwood)
