Welcome to another edition of “Friday Frights,” where I write just a little to set up a topic for discussion, but the real action takes place in the comments from you.
Despite the inevitable ups and downs of a writing career, despite our fears and doubts, despite any criticisms or rejections that are almost certainly hiding in wait for us, there are those moments in a writer’s life that shine so brightly, they can never be dimmed or diminished.
One that especially interests me is the first time you took that giant leap from writing for yourself, a class, or your dream publication in some imaginary future to actually sending out your work for publication. Whether or not that particular writing was accepted, I believe this moment is critical for you to reflect on and celebrate for a few reasons:
· It shows you realized your writing was worthy of being published and of others reading it
· It wasn’t an occurrence that passively happened to you, it’s something you made happen. You decided this article, this poem, this book was finally the one you were prepared to put out into the world, you identified an agent or editor or self-publishing company, you figured out how to pitch your work to them, and, most importantly, you pressed “send”
· It might be the first time you truly considered yourself a writer because the prospect of being published was now real
My moment came in 2000 when I pitched an editor at Salon a tongue-in-cheek piece begging the judges on an appeals court considering Napster’s legality to shut down the music service because illicitly listening to it would be way more fun than if it was legitimized. My move from MFA student and marketing communications consultant to writer was sparked by a few factors that happened simultaneously: I’d grown tired of writing on behalf of clients and wanted to see my own name in lights, I knew that responding to a newsworthy event would increase my chances of getting published, I found a pop culture topic that interested me, and I came up with a twist on it that was fun to write.
What was your moment? Or, if you haven’t experienced yours yet, what do you think will motivate you to take the leap?
Please share your response in the comments below. Also, feel free to reply to other readers’ responses. I really appreciate your willingness to be open with the rest of us!
Love Henrietta’s legal declaration under oath…. Now that is commitment… and back when an oath was significant. :-)
I had been trying to help my daughter with her school work. She was having a few challenges and i thought back to how fortunate I might have been if someone had given me some guidance. My parents were quite laissez faire, which had its good and bad influences.
I began to harken back to my experiences in school. Which dragged up some stuff! I had an epiphany at my high school graduation. Many of my friends were collecting scholarships and awards and I was in the audience impatient for the damned ceremony to be over so I could start the evening of frivolity.
It was like a pan hit me on the head. What have I been doing? These people aren’t that brilliant, I can do that. So I made an oath ( like Henrietta, without the legal ramifications) to myself that I would figure out how to get good grades in college. In fact I aimed for straight A’s. And to make a painfully long story less long, I graduated at the top of my class.
So I wanted to share what I’d learned with my daughter. I began to write down notes. Ultimately as my two younger kids grew I decided to publish it as a how-to book. They gained the most benefit and certainly gave me legitimacy.
It’s not a best seller, but it’s full of my insights and short cuts to getting top grades and may be found on Amazon. So when that was published, I claimed I was a writer.
But, of course I’d rather be the brooding, eccentric type who writes meaningful fiction that makes people gasp at my sagacity and insight into life. …. One can dream :-)
I had jury duty and was about to be impaneled when the judge asked us one by one to rise and answer a few questions. When it was my turn, he asked what I did and, for the first time in public, I said "I'm a writer." He asked what kind, and I said "A good one?" So, right then and there, I kind of made it legal, under oath :-)