Publication as an Olympic Sport

Congrats to Gillian who won a copy of Robyn's wonderful book! I'm also going to be running another giveaway on Wendnesday for a fellow Kiwi and Indulgence author, Michele de Winton so be sure to check in then for a chance to win her book too!

In the meantime, I've been watching the Olympics (and no not just the men's swimming, though....phwoooarrrrr...hehe..) and all the commentary about the self belief and determination that athletes have to have etc, etc has got me thinking about that in conjunction with writing and getting published.

I mean, it really is an Olympic sport isn't it?

If you're exceptionally  lucky you might win gold on your first go and that's fantastic. But if you're like the majority of us it'll take a lot longer than that.  In order to get that coveted medal - a contract - you have to have the kind of focus, determination and self belief that top athletes have.

I have never thought of myself as being a particularly determined or self confident sort. I'm actually full of the insecurities that most writers have, that my writing sucks and no one will ever want to read or even, God forbid, like it. But what I've always had is a healthy dislike of being told what to do, especially when someone tells me 'no'. When someone tells me 'no', I just have to go out and make them change their minds. This made me hell on wheels when I was a kid (yeah, I was a whiner, no surprises there eh?) but it helped a lot when it came to getting published.

Last year I pretty much lost a lot of belief in my abilities as a writer. Every single day I thought about giving up - I kid you not. But dammit, I just couldn't. I couldn't let 'no' be the final word in my writing journey. I couldn't let all the grief the rejections caused be for nothing. I had to keep whining to the grown-ups for my ice cream and I didn't want to stop until they gave in and bought me one.

I leaned pretty heavily on my wonderful CPs in the interim and had lots and lots of moans about how hopeless I was. That was my way of dealing with the feelings of frustration. But that stubborn, whiny  determination kept me writing, kept me learning my craft and kept me sending out stuff. And I guess, deep down, I did have enough belief in myself that I would do it eventually. 

Sure enough, a couple of publishers gave in to my whining and now I have my ice cream. ;-)

So what about you? What keeps you hanging in there on your writing journey? Is it the dream of winning gold? Or something else?

Grim Determination

I was going to do a Valentine's Day post but...well...I didn't. I've been too busy hanging on to this writing gig by the skin of my teeth.

I think in my last post I questioned why we do this thing and y'know, for the past few days I've been thinking about it. The answer I always come up with is that I love to write. There really isn't anything I'd rather be doing. But I'm coming to the point where because it's no longer economically viable for me to write fulltime - hey, whaddya know, I haven't sold anything yet! - I'm going to have to do something else that actually earns me some cash.

You hear of people who take chances and quit their jobs to write fulltime who then, after years of toil, finally sell and go on to make pots o cash doing what they love. I would love to have been one of those success stories. But I am not. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to spend 3 years writing fulltime but that time is now coming to an end. And it's a bummer because I haven't managed to do what I wanted in that time. My craft has improved out of sight and I am writing better than I've ever done. But I haven't got that all-important sale yet.

I guess no one said it would be easy (three years is NOTHING). My words of warning to aspiring writers everywhere was even in our national paper - here! (yes, fame at last, mwwwwahhhhahaa!). And just because I have to get a 'real' job doesn't mean I should give up - though I have to face facts that I won't have as much time to write as I used to. Maybe it would even be good for me since I tend to be very obsessive about things I like doing and need to break out of it occasionally.

I am sad it didn't work out the way I wanted it to though. But never say never. Sometimes even I underestimate my own grim determination to succeed. And that determination is still there. Hanging on by its fingernails, but definitely still there.

Anyone else feeling like they're hanging on by a thread? Or is that me being waaaaay too dramatic again? :-)