I’ve just hit a string of awesome books. Reviews are forthcoming, but the titles don’t really matter. What matters is that the writing is so good, it hurts.

Let me explain. I’m currently slogging away at my third attempt to rewrite last year’s NaNoWriMo first draft. Meanwhile, this year’s NaNoWriMo is reading the revisions over my shoulder, biding its time to kick my work in progress out of the way. So when I’m reading and a brilliant piece of writing makes me stop in awe, my very next thought is: “I’ll never be this good.”

Sure, no one’s that good on their first draft. What about their third draft? Does Laurie Halse Anderson see inklings of her final masterpiece by the third draft? Because in my third draft, no inklings. The voice isn’t fresh. The style is middle-of-the-road. And as I discovered in a writing workshop this weekend, my descriptions are practically nonexistent. When I do add description, it’s certainly nowhere along the lines of what I most admire:

I shiver and hustle to my sad excuse of a motor vehicle, a Yugo named Bert.

I usually drive to school on autopilot. Not today—leaving late has landed me smack in the middle of rush-hour traffic. This is bad. Bert fears traffic. Bert is a wuss, a tissue box on tires with a bulimic hunger for motor oil. I pet the dashboard as I turn onto the main road, and promise him a filter change if he can get me to school without overheating.

A bulimic hunger for motor oil? Dang.

Maybe I shouldn’t be comparing myself to the likes of LHA and Suzanne Collins and Melina Marchetta. But I want to write something that I think is great. If I think what I’ve created is just okay, why bother putting it out into the world?

If I’m being honest with myself, my writing is sometimes good, sometimes mediocre, sometimes bad. I can find the mediocre and bad patches and fix them. But how do you take yourself from good to great?

In my book reviews, I try to articulate what I admired and didn’t enjoy about each book, in the hopes that the process will help me with my own writing (and yours as well). And it is helping, for me at least. But not enough. I need to do something more proactive to take my writing to the next level. But I have no idea how to do that. Help!

Your Turn: What steps have you taken to get your writing to the next level?

Photo by timcmak.

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