Determination, Talent, Technique
Determination, Talent, Technique
"This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don't consider it rejected. Consider that you've addressed it "to the editor who can appreciate my work" and it has simply come back stamped "not at this address." Just keep looking for the right address."
Barbara Kingsolver
I wrote seriously for 8-9 years and had four complete manuscripts and four partial stories before I received "The Call." Naturally, I'd much rather have sold in my 2nd or 3rd year, and I had enough successes along the way to keep me going, and built a support group with people – strong friends I still have today – in Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. I sold in January of 2001, with the book coming out in December 2001, but in November 2000 I decided to cut back on my writing. What was I doing, spending all my free time at my computer, banging my head against my desk to write the best story I was capable of? But it finally happened, and though Berkley didn't buy Heart Thief (book 2) right away, I still worked as hard as I could on the book and on promotion to keep my hopes and career alive.
Only you can keep yourself writing (or painting, or doing photography, or acting, or...) and determination is more important than talent or technique. Talent and technique are necessary, but if you don't have the determination to stick to your career, then you probably won't make it.
I put mywebsite up in March of 2001, and I included Free Your Artist with motivational quote, creativity exercise and affirmation (along with monthly links to ecards, divination sites, celtic or castle sites, etc.) http://www.robindowens.com/freeyourartist.htm. I find the quotes, create the exercises and affirmations, and this was my first quote and makes a good bookend for this topic.
In waiting for the glorious moment of that first book contract, writers must have giant reservoirs of patience. Yet they must persevere because they don't know the destiny that is being worked out for them. They creep humbly along the ground, without the spacious aerial vision of their lives that would show them the destiny in store for them. Ron Chernow
Like I said in my dedication of my first book,
"This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don't consider it rejected. Consider that you've addressed it "to the editor who can appreciate my work" and it has simply come back stamped "not at this address." Just keep looking for the right address."
Barbara Kingsolver
I wrote seriously for 8-9 years and had four complete manuscripts and four partial stories before I received "The Call." Naturally, I'd much rather have sold in my 2nd or 3rd year, and I had enough successes along the way to keep me going, and built a support group with people – strong friends I still have today – in Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. I sold in January of 2001, with the book coming out in December 2001, but in November 2000 I decided to cut back on my writing. What was I doing, spending all my free time at my computer, banging my head against my desk to write the best story I was capable of? But it finally happened, and though Berkley didn't buy Heart Thief (book 2) right away, I still worked as hard as I could on the book and on promotion to keep my hopes and career alive.
Only you can keep yourself writing (or painting, or doing photography, or acting, or...) and determination is more important than talent or technique. Talent and technique are necessary, but if you don't have the determination to stick to your career, then you probably won't make it.
I put mywebsite up in March of 2001, and I included Free Your Artist with motivational quote, creativity exercise and affirmation (along with monthly links to ecards, divination sites, celtic or castle sites, etc.) http://www.robindowens.com/freeyourartist.htm. I find the quotes, create the exercises and affirmations, and this was my first quote and makes a good bookend for this topic.
In waiting for the glorious moment of that first book contract, writers must have giant reservoirs of patience. Yet they must persevere because they don't know the destiny that is being worked out for them. They creep humbly along the ground, without the spacious aerial vision of their lives that would show them the destiny in store for them. Ron Chernow
Like I said in my dedication of my first book,
posted by FantasyAuthor RobinDOwens | 6:13 PM
2 Comments:
I've always believed that my series would never have continued without my determination. My second book was a bitch to write, and I had to set up a schedule of 20 pages a day to get through it quickly. But that completion gave me the confidence to do all sorts of things: submit the books, work on the rest of the series, start my blog, write progress emails to the publisher...
determination is key.
I wrote for four years and it took me 7 completes. You are sooooo right about hanging in there!
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