Zestful Blog Post #125
Everybody says, ‘Now’s the hardest time to break in.’ They
always say that. Because it’s true; it’s always hard. But here’s the thing,
also true: There is unquenchable thirst for great story out there. Humans will
never stop wanting, needing, craving, story. That’s the beauty of being a
storyteller—whether a camp counselor who wants to send them to bed trembling
after the bonfire, or a novelist
dreaming of greatness.
I write these words on the eve of meeting with nine aspiring
authors in St. Augustine at the Florida Heritage Writers Conference. We’ll meet
in the cool kids’ room at the exquisite Markham House on the Flagler College
campus. Everybody’s read everybody else’s first ten pages and written critiques.
We’ll all discuss the work one at a time, together. I’ll give it everything I’ve
got. And we will all learn.
When I was a young girl, I sat next to my mother watching
Olympics gymnastics on TV. Stirred, I said, “I’d like to do that!” She said,
without even thinking much, “Oh, the chances of making it are so low.”
I meant I’d like to tumble and fly like those girls did. She
thought I meant I wanted to be on the Olympics team, stand on the platform and
get a medal. She wanted to quash that ambition right away, because so few
who try, make it onto the world stage. Why set the kid up for heartbreak? She
thought she was doing me a favor. But that’s a terrible way to react to a child’s
impulse, or dream. (All loving respect to her memory.)
It’s a fine, but clear, distinction. I never did pursue
gymnastics. Just as well, because my body was wrong for it—too spindly, too tall.
But she couldn’t dissuade me from writing, and later from
quitting a lucrative corporate job to try to earn a much more meager living
from writing. No matter what negativity I got from her, I kept on in some fashion or
other, too compelled to give up. Which is really all there is to it. If you’re
destined to do it, you’ll keep at it, whatever the externals, whatever the outcome.
You have
no choice.
And that’s beautiful. Let it flower. Open. Audiences await.
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