"People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing."Dale Carnegie
Finally, I can say that the manuscripts are in the mail. About 15 of them, to be exact. I toiled for hours over the past two weeks writing cover letters, query letters, formatting my picture book manuscript, checking for every piece of punctuation, and hoping that I had editors' names spelled right on the address heading as I introduced myself to them via paper.
And all of that is well and good. Being published would be a hoot. From where I sit right now, I am proud of myself for accomplishing the goal I set out to do- submit my work and see where it leads. But I've realized it's not why I write. It's not what I'm hanging my hat on; to see whether I break into the publishing world or not. I've been writing and loving to write for years, and I still feel just as in love with writing as I did before I started the whole publishing venture. If I never do anything more than write for my own enjoyment and the enjoyment of some Facebook and blogger friends, I will feel fulfilled. I write to get something out of me, to pour out emotion and feeling and get it all down somewhere. I write because I love to put things into story form, and to use words as a means of expression. I write for fun, relaxation and pleasure, and I always will.
My usual style of writing comes out when I take something that happened in my ordinary, every day kind of life, notice the significance of it and retell it in story form. That's where I feel most comfortable and where, I believe, my strengths lie. Since this recent submission was a children's book manuscript, I had to make it up. (Well, I got the idea from a real life happening, but tweaking it into PB format was a challenge. I'm used to writing for adults to read.) In fact, it was probably even more challenging trying to tell a story, start to finish, with the character having to discover and solve a problem all within 1000 words.
But I did, and shall continue to attempt to do so, but will also continue writing in other formats that come and feel comfortable to me. I am reading an excellent book right now, called "Writing Down the Bones" by Natalie Goldberg. If you love to write- get it. If you ever thought you'd like to write - get it. If you have lived a life and experienced a thing or two - get it. There's a writer in all of us.
Oh, yay! Congrats! You got your story out. That's awesome.
ReplyDeleteI remember you saying to me a long time ago.... that your mom said "did you write it down?" I don't remember what it was that you recommended I write down. But writing at the very least creates a journal of your thoughts. It makes the cup by the sink, the view your father saw, the artsy town and child going off to school tangable and something that can be remembered as it was... not as we remember it years later. So thanks "mom"... I agree, write it down!
ReplyDeleteIf you want to catch a bear, you have to spend some time in the woods... good for you for catching a bear!
ReplyDeleteLovely post! Yes, I am a HUGE fan of Natalie Goldberg- one of my favorite writers. Good luck with your submissions!
ReplyDeleteThat's one of my favorite books. Congratulations on that accomplishment. That is just wonderful. I don't think I would have gotten through much of anything without writing it down... and most wonderful experiences in my life aren't complete without my writing something about them.
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