"All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them." You probably are not surprised to learn that this quote was from Walt Disney, the top dream maker ever.
If you have a dream about a project in your writing world, what do you do? Keep dreaming about it? Talk yourself out of it? Plunge ahead and make it happen?
When we have a big project like a book or a series of books or a series of anthologies as our goal, it can seem overwhelming. Different people will approach their dream in various ways.
Let me tell you about a writer I knew several years ago. She came up with the idea of having a conference for writers from all over the country here in our town of about 50,000 people. Her dream was to call it "Small Town Mystery Conference." When she tossed out her idea to a small group of writers, our jaws dropped and we stared at her. The quieter we were, the more vocal she became about how it would work. She had an answer for every objection she voiced.
Lo and behold, Marilyn's dream became a reality. We did have the conference with top name mystery writers as speakers. People did come from around the country, and the whole thing was such a success that we repeated it for another two years.
It was Marilyn's dream, but it took a village to make it happen. It took a Treasurer who kept putting the clamps on spending and a group of writers working hard for over a year. Her enthusiasm for the project rubbed off on the rest of the committee. The whole episode reminded me of the movie "Field of Dreams." 'Build it and they will come.' Marilyn engineered the building of the conference and they definitely 'did come.' More than once, committee members thought she was crazy to think we could make this happen. How wrong we all were.
That experience taught me that no dream is too big to pursue if you truly believe in what you're going after. You might need some help to achieve it, but that's alright. There are dreams that are strictly individual projects, while others require a group of people to achieve.
Do the dreams of all writers come true? Of course not. Some end up in total disaster or a huge disappointment. There's nothing wrong with that. You know you tried. Consider people who are inventors. We all know they invent myriad numbers of gadgets before they hit on the one that is a success.
If your dream project doesn't work the first time, try again with a different angle. I have a feeling that Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen dreamed about starting the Chicken Soup for the Soul anthologies for a long time. They probably hit some brick walls before their dream became a reality. Even though they are no longer the publishers, that series is still very popular. Their dream lived on.
If you're passionate about this dream project you have, you'll persevere and have the patience to keep working until you see it to fruition. Reach for the stars, grab one, and hold on.
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