A Writer's Thankful List
Thanksgiving for me is a time of reflection. Reflection on the role food plays in my life (pass the mashed potatoes, please) as well as reflection on the past year and what I've accomplished or not.
As a writer, I'm prone to see my failures. (Nine stories sent to Women's World, six rejected.) Instead, I should look at my success - One sold, two still pending.
As a writer, I tend to look too much at the big picture. A novel is 300-400 pages. I have ten on my current work in progress. Instead, I should be thankful for the two pages a day I can write on auto-pilot without pushing myself - that's two full manuscripts a year.
As a writer, I compare myself to my more successful peers. I am unagented, unpublished (except for short), and up until this year at RWA Nat'l's, unpartied. Writing is not a game for the weak willed. You have to want it, and you have to want it bad.
(Enter self esteem tapes here. Your choice. I'm kind of partial to the goal setting guru - Steven Covey.)
So my list of thanks.
I'm thankful for the agents who have requested partials and fulls, giving me a chance to show my work.
I'm thankful for my critique group who point out the good, bad, and ugly in my pages.
I'm thankful for the editors who have my manuscripts sitting on their desks, waiting for a few extra minutes when I can sweep them away.
I'm thankful for my writer friends where I can grip and moan about the inhumanity of a rejection, then get told to get back up on the mechanical bull and take another spin.
And I'm thankful for my daily routine. The words that sometimes come fast and flow, and the times where writing each word is painful.
Because, even on the worse day of being a writer, it's the best job I could ever dream of. Part or full time. I feel like I finally know what I want to be when I grow up.
And that's a lot to be thankful for.
What about you? What are you thankful for this holiday season.
Lynn
4 comments:
I'm thankful that I still have one story penidng for Woman's World (two have been rejected). I'm also thankful I got a short story published in a Christmas anthology.
Yay - Walt. I'm always so hopeful when that envelope comes back from Seattle.
Good luck with your pending and congrats on the Christmas Anthology.
I am also thankful for the opportunity to follow my dreams, and thankful, like you Lynn, that I've finally found my true path and have the tenacity to follow it, no matter how bumpy it gets.
Not sure why, but this got me teary-eyed. I think because you said it all so perfectly.
It's a great job.
Post a Comment