It's Not a Crazy Dream

Talking to an aspiring writer recently, I felt strongly how important it was for writers who have "made it" to some degree to be encouraging to people who are starting out. I don't always feel encouraging. Sometimes I feel pretty cynical about the state of the publishing world. I see writers I think are brilliant being rejected or giving up careers in writing for something that, well, actually pays them. It makes me crazy.

But I still remember the days when my parents, probably more out of ignorance than malice, treated my dreams of becoming a writer as about as possible as dreams of becoming a shark. And if I hadn't had writers around me I actually knew in person who went from unpublished to published right before my eyes, I don't know if I would have ever had the courage to keep writing and keep dealing with the rejections.

Truth: The biggest difference between writers who get published and writers who don't is persistence.

It's not:
1. Talent
2. Knowing someone
3. Having money to go to conference or to pay editors to fix your books
4. Luck (though luck helps)
5. A new trend

So I will say to you what I said to this young writer friend of mine.

Whatever your idea is, it's not crazy. It's not a bad idea. It just needs you to spend time on it. It needs you to really go with it, to throw your whole self into it, and to trust your own imagination. It may or may not be the work that gets you published. That's not what matters right now. What matters right now is believing that you will make it.

You will make it if you keep at it.

I won't promise you will be a best selling author. I can't guarantee you will make a living at it. But your work is worthwhile. There are people out there who want to read it when it's ready. And if you decide it's not ready, you can choose to move onto something else. There's nothing wrong with that, either. You have lots of ideas, and they are all good ones.

You can do this, no matter who has told you before in your life that you can't, that you shouldn't try.