Effort Will Out
I recently read something that stuck in my mind. I don't remember where I saw it or when, but it must have made an indelible impression because it keeps cropping up in my mind at the oddest times. It went something like, "No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress you are still ahead of everyone who isn't trying".
Now that says much to me, and pretty well sums up my career as a writer of novels. Over the past 15 years, I have written three; mostly in my spare time, and typing with two fingers in a clumsy peck-a-peck style. Those three works represent much effort and desired perfection, but I am sure most any practiced mind steeped in prose could find fault with each and every one of them. Before reading the quotation above, I would have felt down about those facts, but not any more.
You see, I finally remember why I started writing in the first place...because I had to. I don't mean that I was forced into it by circumstances, but by desire. All of my life I have enjoyed books and the stories they contained. Often, I have asked myself if I could possibly write something that would please me and others to some small degree; if I could create through sheer will, effort and imagination a means of sharing ideas and emotions. Once I started the effort, I have not stopped.
But creating something and sharing something are two different things. As the old axiom warns,"You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink" applies here also. I have created my works, but cannot force its consumption. So as a commercially successful author I am still woefully off the mark. That fact got in the way of my enjoyment of my accomplishments, until now.
Now I know that I was a success, that I had accomplished my first and primary goal when I created my first printed work of fiction. All the rest is secondary - desirable, don't get me wrong - but secondary, none the less. So all you 'would be' writers and poets and creators, stuck staring at your blank canvasses and pieces of paper, and despairing of ever getting to that special place so richly deserved, just remember what I recently learned, that you are already miles ahead of those that never try, and if you keep moving forward you will forever remain a step ahead. That in itself is success for each and everyone of us.
Now that says much to me, and pretty well sums up my career as a writer of novels. Over the past 15 years, I have written three; mostly in my spare time, and typing with two fingers in a clumsy peck-a-peck style. Those three works represent much effort and desired perfection, but I am sure most any practiced mind steeped in prose could find fault with each and every one of them. Before reading the quotation above, I would have felt down about those facts, but not any more.
You see, I finally remember why I started writing in the first place...because I had to. I don't mean that I was forced into it by circumstances, but by desire. All of my life I have enjoyed books and the stories they contained. Often, I have asked myself if I could possibly write something that would please me and others to some small degree; if I could create through sheer will, effort and imagination a means of sharing ideas and emotions. Once I started the effort, I have not stopped.
But creating something and sharing something are two different things. As the old axiom warns,"You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink" applies here also. I have created my works, but cannot force its consumption. So as a commercially successful author I am still woefully off the mark. That fact got in the way of my enjoyment of my accomplishments, until now.
Now I know that I was a success, that I had accomplished my first and primary goal when I created my first printed work of fiction. All the rest is secondary - desirable, don't get me wrong - but secondary, none the less. So all you 'would be' writers and poets and creators, stuck staring at your blank canvasses and pieces of paper, and despairing of ever getting to that special place so richly deserved, just remember what I recently learned, that you are already miles ahead of those that never try, and if you keep moving forward you will forever remain a step ahead. That in itself is success for each and everyone of us.
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