Do You Want to Enough?


"You must want to enough. Enough to take all the rejections, enough to pay the price of disappointment and discouragement while you are learning."
Phyllis A. Whitney


To Ms. Whitney's wisdom, I'd add, do you want to enough to put in the time and sweat equity and expend the effort to silence the voices of doom (many of which are located only inside your head)?

If the answer to any of these is no, then move along. There's nothing to see here. But if you're brave enough, smart enough, diligent enough, talented enough and mule-stubborn, you just may have a shot.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Nice quote :)
And yes, I want to enough.
Agree. You gotta want it. Because the rejection, sweat, heartbreak and tears don't stop with publication. But if you hang in there and don't.ever.give.up, you'll get there. Hoo-ah!
What, Jennifer? You mean that once your published, every doors doesn't magically whoosh open from that point on?

Bwahaha!

Thanks for stopping by, you two! And I'm glad to hear it, Ali! When you *can't* quit, that's a start.
jenny milchman said…
Conventional wisdom has it that if you can *not* write, don't.

I would add that if writing doesn't offer you a joy like no other, you might also want to consider stopping. I don't mean all the time, every word, of course. But I find that only that joy--soaring to a place I couldn't go otherwise--pulls me through the misery and frustration that does tend to go hand in hand with pursuing publication.