Friday, June 25, 2010

This has been a strange week for me, that started last Thursday (June 17, 2010 - my sister's birthday, btw). It all started with a sense of knowing what I needed to do on a certain project and having this burning desire to get home and get started. In fact, I mentioned that in an earlier post.

Then, articles I read, things I heard people say on television - fictional characters, but their words held impact for me - and so much more seemed to gel together into this sense that I'm back on the right track with my writing and that what I'm doing with this current project is definitely the write (yes, meant to use that word) thing!

Life is full of so much doubt, so much negativity, and it's hard not to fall in step with the doubters and negators (not sure it's a word, but I'm using it). It is, I believe, human nature to have feelings of doubt and negativity.

It is also human nature to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If a person believes bad things are going to happen to them, then, most likely, bad things will happen to them. If a person believes that nothing is going to come of a blind date, then isn't it more likely they're really not going to try really hard to impress the other person on the blind date? No, not me, but a friend of mine did just that recently. He had such a negative outlook on the upcoming blind date that I think he sabotaged the date. Just my thoughts.

But, back to happier things: Dreams don't work without action. Nobody can stop me but me. By now, you know these are the words spoken by the fictional character Roseann Connor in the final episode of Roseann. You should also know by now, that these words have become my mantra.

Life is what we make of it. Yup, I'm going all Pollyanna on you - if you've never seen that movie with Hayley Mills (she of the original Parent Trap) and Jane Wyman (she of Falcon Crest), then stop what you are doing and go rent that movie now. Heck, even Agnes Morehead (Endora from Bewitched) is in the movie, and has a delightful part. Anyhow, perhaps I am going all Pollyanna lately. Perhaps we all should.

On that note: Boyd Morrison, debut author of The Ark - he "didn't let rejection discourage him". His book was "turned down by 25 publishers". He persevered. He believed in himself and his book. - Writer's Digest - July/August 2010 - p. 18.

Boyd Morrison was passionate enough about his book to do whatever he needed to do to get his book out there. We, as writers, need to be just as passionate.

I also read a comment on Twitter, or maybe the blogsphere, about an author who received way more than 25 rejections . . . and still ended up getting published.

Perseverance is key.

Trusting our instinct, our gut . . . is key.

I'm going with the sense that everything is just right at the moment. It's just a feeling. I'm diving into that feeling and not coming up for air until I absolutely have to come up for air!

If I take meaning from words spoken on Bewitched or Roseann or from a successful author, or whoever, and if that meaning inspires me and pushes me forward . . . so what? I take what I can get in this life. I can either move forward with a positive attitude, or I can stagnate with a negative attitude.

In the end, we make our lives what they are . . . and not somebody else. We choose our path. I've chosen the crazy, nerve-wracking, OMG I have to write a query and a synopsis in addition to a novel of brilliance path . . . and I have no intention of giving up. I may lose my way from time to time, but I know that, out here in the blogsphere, there are enough friends to set me back on that path!

S

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey, you have an award on my blog! Come pick it up...

; )

Theresa Milstein said...

Just came from Tessa's blog.

Did you read Boyd's interview on Chuck Sambuchino's blog this week? He had more than 50 agent rejections. Fills me with hope. Plus he has some great suggestions:

http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/How+I+Got+My+Agent+Boyd+Morrison.aspx

Theresa Milstein said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Michelle D. Argyle said...

Very inspiring, Scott! It's this kind of thinking that has led me to where I'm at right now. I hope I'm making things as happy as I can make them. I'm trying!

Tess said...

oh, and hooray for feeling in the swing of things. there are great things inside of you, Scott. You can do this!!

Tess said...

I love Pollyanna! It's a classic.

and, only 25 rejections? that's nothing! I've had at least that many...at least! Of course, I can't count them exactly because, like a num-nut, I didn't save them. Each time one would come in my mailbox, I'd stand in the street and tear it up into itty bitty pieces and then chuck it into the bushes in a little hissy fit.

yep, that's a lovely image, isn't it?

Scott said...

Tess - LOL! I save my rejections! Okay, I kind of gave up on querying after the 5th rejection or so . . . but that was a good thing. I realized neither I nor my book was ready for the query process. I'm just about ready. I'm in the last - before query - word elimination phase. My goal is to get below 100K words. Almost there! Woo-hoo!!

Michelle - if we're not happy, we obviously don't love what we're doing, and should do something else. With that said . . . I've read Cinders and all your posts about the novella, and, well, I can feel the love! Write for you first, and the rest of the world second!

Theresa - thanks for dropping by. Yes, I did read that interview. Hope springs from unlikely places, and that interview was one of those places.

Tessa - thanks for the award.