I'm rereading Mr. King's book On Writing, which was lost during the move, and recently repurchased. I feel a particular kinship with Stephen King. We're the same age, for a short time we had the same publisher, both of us had a unfortunate encounter with poison ivy toilet paper when we were young, we both were editors of our high school papers. Of course, his career far surpasses mine, but it's nice to know he struggled in his early years, as we all do.Here's what he has to say about his career. "I think I was forty before I realized that almost every writer of fiction and poetry who has ever published a line has been accused by someone of wasting his or her God-given talent. If you write (or paint, or dance or sculpt or sing, I suppose), someone will try to make you feel lousy about it, that's all."
So Stephen had someone try to make him feel lousy about his writing, too. More that we have in common.
So what's the take-away? Don't let anyone tell you you're wasting your talent, or make you feel lousy. Keep your nose to the grindstone and keep cranking out your stories. You'll get better every time you type "The End" on your works and sooner or later, you'll be able to look upon those who made you feel lousy and wish them well.
In that vein, I'm pleased to announce that Book Baby #19 was just awarded a Crowned Heart by Ind'Tale Magazine and is featured on their YouTube feed. You can see the whole thing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YbBugDLmK8
Or, you can just take a look at the ad they created for me here:
I once had a job that had lots of bad days. I kept a "compliments folder" in my desk. I could pull that out and read thank you notes from clients (an office worker's equivalent of a review) whenever I was feeling particularly discouraged. Hold on to that ad!
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