Friday, July 31, 2009

writing warriors

this business is crazy and dream crushing and dream making and not for the faint of heart. yesterday, during my critique group, we discussed two kernels of truth in learning your process of writing:

1. you can only control what you can control and write the best damn book/article/short story you've got inside of you at the moment and learn from each project you complete and revise.

2. writing is not for wimps. everyone loves to talk about that one person who wrote their first book, sold it, had to do zero revisions and it became an overnight instant bestseller. all that sounds great but the reality is writing is WORK.

Crumpled letter

writers work and submit and get rejected and write and submit some more and get rejected and so on and so on. this is the career path for most people. it is not for people with fragile egos whose feelings are crushed at the slightest bit of criticism or rejection.

writing is for warriors.

Lisa


ps. please don't fall down in shock--two posts in a week!

4 comments:

Larkin said...

Writing warriors? Maybe. I know nothing of warriors, but I've seen boxing matches. Seen how beat up those guys get, rest a minute in their safe corners, get up, go back to the punishment, on the off-chance that they'll win.

Been to your site, and now your blog. Good work. Keep slugging.

Unknown said...

Thanks Larkin!

Yeah, I'll take writers as boxers, get beat up, get knocked down, but a winner just gets up and keeps writing. :)

Elisa Dane said...

Woot! I'll happily accept being called a warrior. I also think writers are the most patient people on the planet. The waiting is soooo hard!

Unknown said...

Lisa--
The waiting IS hard and I'm not sure I'd term my waiting "patient" .... :)