Nov. 18, 2001
Nervy Girl magazine contacted me a bit ago saying that they might want to run another article in their next magazine. I felt extremely excited over this for several reasons. One was because of the feedback I had received from their readers – it was very powerful to me. I heard numerous stories of women who were either going through what I was going through or from women who felt I was the push they needed to start their own adventure. The second reason I was excited was because it meant that my writing was doing something – it was out there having this life and affecting others. And that, in turn, meant I was doing something.
With two articles behind me, the possibility of a few more, I felt that I was finally getting somewhere after months of wandering. Even though I have a lot more road to travel, it seems exciting now rather than daunting.
I finally feel that I am now a writer instead of a wannabe.
I realise now that this is all happening because I’ve chosen for it to. I’ve made the effort, I’ve showed up, I’ve done the work, I made the calls. That has made me feel a sense of accomplishment like nothing else. I no longer sit and wait for someone to hand me everything. No emulating, no wishing, no trying to figure out the keys to others success because I’m working on my own.
Before all of this, I used to glaze over the thousands of books in a bookstore and scrunch my nose. “How did they get published?” I’d open up a magazine and think to myself, “I could have written better than that. How did they get in there?” Then there’d be the times where I’d see some writings of a writer I admired and think “How did they do that? I’ll never be able to do that.
Then one day, it dawned on me why the bad writers were published, why the authors in the bookstores had their books and how the good writers wrote brilliant articles. They simply did.
I realised the only difference between them and myself, was that I just thought about writing and they actually took charge and did something. So one day I stopped just thinking about writing and began writing and doing.
That was the magic. That was the secret each of those published people had. And now I knew it.
I always thought that published people had something I didn’t have and that they were in a separate league than I. But I have realised that people are people are people and those that have success have it not because of a special potion they rubbed on themselves but because they pursued something.