Reflect on Your Own Work: Writing!
In a literary discussion in a literary discussion group, a poet reminded a young poet who claimed to be reading his own poem published in a national print media. According to the poet's best friend, there is no need to read the poem yourself, which has already been published. It is better to read your own work which is rejected to see the shortcomings so that it can improve again to meet the standards.
Writing and reading are an inseparable package of activities. Reading is not only to enrich the vocabulary and strengthen diction so that it can convey ideas straightforwardly, more than that it also broadens thinking and builds logic of argumentation. Reading activity is a complete response including attitude, cognitive, and manipulative with several sub skills in it (Fredick McDonald, 1996).
Media Character
Many suggestions from the author, if you want to pass the work to a media, then frequently read the work published in the media concerned. Not all works rejected are bad, but may not be in accordance with the vision and mission of the media. The issue of the taste of the editor or the team of curators is also one of the unwritten considerations, which sometimes feels explicit in the articles published and sometimes feels vague. As in football, not all the best players enter the line-up because of consideration of team needs, strategy, coaches' tastes, to management pressure (because this last has never happened in professional clubs).
There is no compulsion for writers to follow certain styles and forms of writing to surrender to the editor's "taste". The freedom of work for writers is more decisive so that many choose to give birth to a work first and then determine the medium, although some do the opposite and there are writers who combine the two patterns.
Every writer has their own style.
So, what about reading your own work that has been published? Is this part of the reading objective as intended by the experts?
The process of work should be part of the learning phase carried out on an ongoing basis. A writer, whether his life depends on writing or not, produces many works throughout his writing career. Not all works that have appeared in the media are still imprinted in memory. This was experienced by a writer who was a judge in a short story competition.
It's felt that he had read a similar short story, but could not remember where and when. It was only later that he realized that the short story was his own work, which was competed by the contestants.
How can he forget his own work, of course it can be understood if the author concerned has written for years and has given birth to hundreds of works in various forms (short stories, poetry, novels, drama, or nonfiction).
Reflection and evaluation
Reading one's own work that has been published is part of a reflection of the past that can be seen from two approaches. First, from the birth of the idea of the work and the process of creation of the work to completion. Second, aspects of the quality of works that experience metamorphosis over time.
There is a writer who re-read his work in the past and was surprised to realize his own thoughts a few years ago. There are also those who feel ashamed of their own work in the past even though it has reached a certain standard. Not infrequently, the process of returning to past thoughts in giving birth to works actually gives a new idea that is different and more brilliant. So it's not just reminiscing fulfilling the longings of the past. There is a learning atmosphere in it.
Re-reading your own published work is also a confirmation of yourself regarding the standardization of a media. For mass media that have similar character and segmentation, it is not difficult to impose limits.
However, media with different segmentation and vision, of course, requires awareness since a work is still in the form of an embryo. Like food, ingredients and seasonings needed for children is certainly different from adults - even adults have very specific tastes that must be realized from the beginning of the chef.
Reading the work itself is not a necessity that must be a guideline for all writers. So, there is no need to question there are writers who do it and some who do not with different considerations. Importantly, reading (both his own and even more other writer's) and writing are an inseparable part of each writer's creative work.[]
