So you think you’ll write a book? For those brave enough to throw caution to the wind, pick up pencil and paper, (Microsoft Word® and a laptop, actually) and venture off into the world of such greats as Fitzgerald, Hemmingway and Woolf, I commend your tenacity. I applaud your blasé attitude toward the critics who wait anxiously for the opportunity to reduce your months, if not years, of hard work to nothing more than a stack of cat-box liners. I revel in the idea that you have skin toughened by the criticism of your peers enough to draw envy from a buffalo. For this, my fellow writers, is what awaits you just beyond those final words of the story you just have to share with the world.
But don’t despair, these same guardians of the literary world have been there through the ages. Anyone whose put pen to paper at one time or another has felt the sting of their blade. It’s those who chose to stand and fight that became great writers. Those who believed what they had to say mattered line the shelves of our libraries. And those who managed to keep everything in perspective have given us hours of pleasure.
I have a small plaque on my desk where I write that reads thus:
Three rules for becoming a successful author.
Rule #1- Write your story and submit it.
Rule #2- Expect to be rejected.
Rule #3- Go back to Rule #1 and repeat as needed.
