I dream of being a writer. I mean I guess I am a writer since I write, but I dream of being a writer whose work has the publishers stamp of approval.
“Write what you know.” That’s the advice all the writing teachers, magazines, websites give out. With that advice, all I feel like I am qualified to write is a book titled How Not to be a Writer. I could chronicle my daily adventures of reading emails, changing diapers, washing dishes, folding laundry, comforting the baby, changing more diapers, sitting at the computer and trying to think up what to write. Maybe on the last page of the book I could draw a cartoon of a publisher–complete with red eyes, horns coming out of his head, and the blood of some aspiring authors dream oozing out from between his teeth. He would be surrounded by shredded manuscripts and a cloud of rejection letters. Each manuscript represents years of someone’s life. Down in the corner, one small author with long, curly brown hair attempt to crawl away unnoticed, manuscript still in hand.
Ah yes, that’s the book I’m qualified to write.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
The best books I’ve ever read had been rejected by publishers at least 10-20 times. Let them snarl, and turn their noses up at our best…maybe this manuscript we hold in shaking hands is out of the box and the winner!
O.k. I may be speaking to me more than you. If I let myself imagine that my world of wonder is not “enough” for the publishing world I’ll never finish the work in my dream bucket.
I love your writing…but I’m not a publisher and I don’t even know one. But you can use my opinion to encourage you to keep writing.
Kay, Just get the words on paper, right? Put your internal editor in a cage and just write.