This is a departure from my usual topic, but I have a writing success to share. This happy event got me thinking about persistence, risk, and the before and after of success. So, I'm taking the liberty of sharing my musings here, in hopes of bringing a little inspiration to your day.
(I don't think my blog today is all that off topic, since the success we dream of can also be increased strength, better cardio vascular health, good nutrition, or reduced weight.)
Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.
--John Updike
Dreams. I've always believed in them, that they come true. John Updike did, too--the above quote came from his memoirs.
In my own case, I can honestly say that every serious dream I've had in my life has come true, in one way or another. Maybe it's because my dreams were realistic in the first place, although some of them I'd never expected to become reality. Or maybe it's because I'd worked hard to make things happen, although some things were indeed beyond my control. Or maybe it's just serendipity, plain ole good luck. But whatever the cause of a dream fulfilled, dreams do come true, and I think we all know this.
I'm often struck by the idea of the before and the after of a dream come true. We don't know what's just around the corner--we can't know the future.
The second before something great happens to us, however strong our suspicions that what we long for might come about, we can't ever know we're on the threshold. We can't know that our wish is about to drift down from its star and take concrete shape in our world.
What if we'd given up on our dream in that second before? Stopped striving, stopped working so hard? Stopped caring?
Published authors say that the name of the game is persistence. That once we have a manuscript, we'll never sell it if we don't submit. They tell us if we don't get past the first, or second, or hundredth rejection, if we allow those no's to stop us from submitting, we'll certainly never place our work with a publisher. They say we must persist, that we have to keep submitting in the face of rejection, which means we have to keep on taking risks.
With every submission, there is the risk of rejection. This risk is universal, experienced by every writer who submits work with the goal of publication. I've had best-selling authors tell me that even they get rejected!
My point? before, we don't know.
Then, an infinitesimal instant takes us from before to after, and the yearned-for milestone occurs. In a writer's case, that yearned-for event more often than not is publication.
After, we respond, we feel--joy, satisfaction, increased self confidence--a variety pack of emotion--because our reality has changed. Our dream, or a step toward that dream, has actually come true. What a mystery this seems, the mystery of success.
The other day, when I made my first sale (of a short story entitled "Chateau"), I happened to travel from Tokyo to San Jose, California, winding up a family vacation in Japan. That morning, and all that day, for that matter--in other words, during the entire before--I had things on my mind: forcing my jammed suitcase closed and hoping its weight wouldn't result in excess baggage charges, getting to the airport on time, trying to sleep during the long, red-eye flight, and upon arrival home with severe jet lag, dealing with unpacking and laundry as I strove to renew a normal schedule ASAP. I certainly wasn't thinking of what might be happening with a recent submission to a magazine publisher.
Then, it happened: I found in my in-box an e-mail saying my story had been chosen to appear in a magazine, with a contract included to sign and return to the publisher. Before time snapped its finger, I had no idea that in less than a second, a dream of mine would come true.
Now, I'm in the after. I walk on the other side of the door that leads from unpubbed writer to published author (pending the appearance of the issue, of course.) I've sold my writing.
Though a modest success, this milestone feels like a great success to me, a key step on the way to fulfillment of my dreams. Which reinforces my faith in the mystery that every day is a day of dreams come true.
I'd love to hear comments on this mystery of dream come true, of success, however great or modest. For example, the time you received "the call" that your manuscript had sold, or that an agent offered you representation, the time you finaled in a contest, the time you finally got to type THE END in a hard-wrought manuscript. Or non-writing successes, non-writing dreams come true. For example, the day you got the promotion you worked so hard for, the time your tyke learned to tie his or her shoe after your patient teaching, the moment that special someone first declared his or her love. What was happening just before that milestone? What was your world like after? What did you feel?
Dreams big and little, the mystery of the before and after. Thinking of this inspires me, makes me hang on, helps me keep the faith--which means I keep trying, keep going for the gold. Maybe some day there will even be that mysterious moment just before I find out my novel has sold.
Does thinking of this mystery help you, too? If so, please leave a comment. I'd love to hear your musings about the before and after, of what makes you keep the faith and believe in what you are doing. What were you doing before the yearned-for happened? What was the after like? How did you respond? How did you feel?
xo,
Rita
P.S. Here's a link to another writer who sold to the magazine the same time I did.
http://www.dixiebelle.blogspot.com/2008/06/second-chance-for-phantom-rose.html.
For further inspiration, go there and read what she has to say.
