Share My Work

I don't usually share my work especially when it's in first draft stage. Sometimes, however, I'd get the itch to post something or send my readers a snippet, even if I don't get any feedback. I'm not sure why. Is it because I'm insecure as a writer and I need someone to tell me: "It's good." Or is it because I'm proud of my work and I want to share it with someone else before the whole thing is ready for consumption? Or is it because writing is a lonely profession and we writers need to come out of our shells sometimes and let our writing breathe?

Anyway, I'm particularly pleased with this paragraph and I think it gives my potential readers an idea of what to expect from Part Two of the book:




He falls silent again and continues with his noodles. I look away for a brief moment, and watch the streetlights flicker outside and the bicycles whisk by. I've decided I do not like watching people eat: how the food disappears into those dark, shuttering holes, followed by the nauseating sounds of chewing and swallowing. That's absurd. How people consume their food. I then stare at his glass of beer, which obscures and distorts the Aloha shirt he's wearing, and I realize how our culture is slowly consuming this country. Our language consuming theirs. And soon our military may consume their land.

Comments

José Iriarte said…
I really liked that. Specifically, I admired the way you managed to convey the surrounding without it seeming perfunctory. I don't think I'm nearly as smooth in the way I give description. In this snippet, you're describing, but it really turns into character development instead, because the things your narrator notices tell me about him/her and what s/he values as much as anything else.
Ray Wong said…
Thanks Joe, and happy new year!
I'm just now catching up on blogs and have't been commenting, but I have to here. I really like this passage and love the mood you've set.

I totally get wanting to share. I think it's because we spend so much time inside our heads, worrying about how things sound, then when something clicks you want to share so people realize what exactly it is you've been doing in there.
Ray Wong said…
Thanks Mel. You get me.

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