Thursday, March 12, 2009

Yesterday was a high intensity research day. Sparks were flying out of this computer. I ordered interlibrary loan material, read online articles, created a bookmark and populated it with online resources, located 5-6 research papers online, browsed newspaper archives to see what was out there, and identified research papers I need. No shortage of material for this assigned article. Things are rolling. I like that. When I'm not working on anything in particular there is far too much time to think.

From a phone call with an editor earlier this week, one comment stuck in my head. He said I wasn't like other writers because I'm not afraid to fail. What I neglected to tell him was the mat on my front door doesn't say WELCOME it says FAILURE. I step on it all the time. I'm so used to getting rejected and turned down I've likely become numb to it. Yes, it does bother me, but I bounce back from it pretty quick and the best way to recover is to get another iron in the fire ASAP. I guess I thought perseverance was the number one thing a writer needed. So why would other writers be afraid to fail? After a friend told me my mat should say PERSEVERANCE not FAILURE, I gave it some more thought. No, I don't consider myself a failure, nor do I consider myself successful, but more enroute or work-in-progress kinda thing. Capisce? (my grandfather used always say that)

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