competent or otherwise

I'm reminded of the Four Stages of Competence model as I prepare to start writing the final project for my Masters in Creative Writing: 20,000 words of a novel. These stages are:
1. Unconscious Incompetence: where we neither understand or know how to do something, nor do we know that we don't understand.
2. Conscious Incompetence: where we neither understand or know how to do something but are aware of this.
3. Conscious Competence: where we understand or know how to do something but have to work hard to achieve it and are very aware of what we're doing.
4. Unconscious Competence: where we have had so much practice with a skill that it becomes "second nature" and can be performed easily.

I rank myself somewhere between levels 2 and 3. For the project I have to move up to between levels 3 and 4. The question is whether or not I can travel that far in just over three months. Writing 20,000 words is not the problem. Writing complete novels is not the problem. The challenge is writing at the required level. Feedback from literary agents to whom I submitted several chapters of my last novel, was along the lines of "doesn't have the 'wow' factor," "not a 'must read' ".

So, what have I learned about the craft of writing from the course? It's virtually impossible to find an original theme, so how a story is told is pivotal to its success. The big questions to keep asking myself are: What is the story about? How do I want the readers to feel? It's about digging deep: having reasons for including plot lines, devising certain characters. No longer must I 'pluck ideas from the air'. It's about pace, the avoidance of superfluous words, about richness and precision of language. The list goes on. Much to think about.


Pensively yours,

Jane