Eyes on the Prize! Never say Never! Get 'er Done! It's Your Monday Fortune Cookie, 2/24/14

THEY SAY YOU ARE STUBBORN; YOU CALL IT PERSISTENCE.

 SNARKY RESPONSE: And sometimes it's just called not knowing any better.

They say you are stubborn; you call it persistence.

Despite the snark, I love this fortune. Anyone who has taken the bit in their mouth and pursued something to the end despite the naysayers has to be right there with me.

For folks who stick to their guns regarding dreams and goals, stubborn is the mortar that holds your efforts together. Anyone who's pulled out a hundred rows of knitting to correct one dropped stitch, anyone who has hauled themselves out of bed at the crack of dawn to put in a couple of miles, anyone who has corrected that bit of paint, clay, or pastel until they captured their subject knows that it's really stubbornness that pushes them through.

For writers, this is what keeps us sending out that novel, essay, or poem over and over until it finds a home. Even if, in the end, that home is in something you produce on your own. You wanted to get those words into print and by George, you were going to see it happen.

If it was easy, everyone who wrote would be published. Mini-Snark:No, wait! Thanks to some online publishing services, everyone CAN, but there is the matter of quality versus quantity.

The key, for me, is to have made the effort to produce the best possible writing you can, polish it until it gleams, and then put it out there. I see no reason why you can't sidestep the publisher route and publish on your own, just make sure that it's worthy of your time and effort as well as the time and effort, not to mention the cash, of your reader.

Persistence is a nice word, a pleasant word, a 'politically-correct/motivational speaker' word, but for true - 'stick-to-it'ness (how would you write that phrase?) - I'm putting my money on Stubborn.

What have you been Stubborn about lately?

Belief, Writing, and Your Monday Fortune Cookie, 9/23/13

BELIEVING IS DOING.

SNARKY RESPONSE: Just make sure you've got that parachute before you take that leap of faith!

Believing is doing.

Back in 2000, I decided that if I really thought I was a writer, I was going to have to get serious and write! All the talking about that great story idea I'd been harboring, or that neat character who'd been haunting me wasn't getting me anywhere. I had to actually put my fingers to keyboard and start typing. Until I did, it was nothing but a pipedream.

I joined a critique group, listened, learned, wrote, and eventually began putting pages in front of them for review and critique. It was scary, putting my words in front of unbiased eyes. It was hard listening when flaws were spotted, mistakes corrected, plot holes identified, but I believed I could improve if I listened. If I remained open to learning new ways of seeing my writing. I kept at it, believing I could do it. I kept doing it, believing it was an evolving effort that would result in my becoming a better writer.

It's still true. Even now, discussing my newest idea with my critique groups is only so much hot air if I'm not putting it down on the screen. If I'm not putting words to screen, I'm not writing and I believe the only proof is in the pudding, or the writing. That's also why being in a critique group is so good for me. Not only must I believe in my writing and do the writing, but I have to turn in pages to the group, thereby holding me accountable for my dreams.

There's no getting around it, no short-cutting it, no foolin - if you want to be a writer, you have to WRITE!

And once you're doing that, YOU ARE A WRITER. Don't dismiss it, don't duck your head and scuff your shoe mumbling. Lift that head, meet the other person eye to eye and say aloud, "Yes, I'm a writer."

It took time, patience, effort, openness, and determination, but now I can truly say that I believe I'm a writer and because I'm a writer, I write!