Be a Perpetual Student!

We all know them - (or maybe we were one OF them!) - those perpetual college students who love the college life, the college atmosphere SO much, that they don't want to leave. Ever. They're the ones who take more classes, get another degree, stay in school just "one more semester." Sure, a few do it solely to escape the "real" world of being tied down to a career. But I think most do it for the sheer pleasure of learning - to continue their journey as lifelong learners. As writers, I think we should be, we must be, lifelong learners.

I always tell my writing students that there's no such thing as a "perfect" writer. We're all human, we all make mistakes, and there's never going to be a writer who reaches that place where he/she has to stop trying, stop improving. Serious writers should constantly be broadening their horizons, and have voracious appetites when it comes to anything dealing with writing. It's key, that we never stop learning and growing. That we're EAGER, lifelong students of the entire process.

Here's a great article I found yesterday, at a site called Backspace (link). The article is 10 Ways to be a Better Writer. It goes beyond the craft of writing, and gives excellent tips that will make us better writers, as a whole. My favorites are #1 and #2, which I incorporate into my Creative Writing classes each semester.

I hope always to be a perpetual student of writing. To read writers/agent blogs, to attend conferences, to read and read and read other books in my genre, to improve my grammar, to achieve my personal best through re-writes and editing. Because I think the moment we stop learning, we stop growing.