The Writing Road Has a Few Bumps

 

"You fail only if you stop writing." Ray Bradbury, author, said this. I thought it worth a topic for this blog today. 

Are you a failure if you write and submit over and over and have never been published. Is it defeat? Not in my book. If you are a writer and continue to write, you're still a writer. You may not be able to list your many successes, but you are still a writer, and your aim is to be published so you can start a list of successes.

Are you a failure if you, set lofty goals at the beginning of your writing days, but only reach a few of them five years later? Not in my way of thinking. No one ever said that you absolutely must achieve the goals you have set for yourself. A goal is something to aim for, to give us incentive. If we meet all of them, that's wonderful, but if not, we don't have to fold up our tent and slink away. 

Are you a failure if you have a book published, but sales are disappointingly low? No. You may be unhappy with your sales totals, but it doesn't mean you should give up writing the next book. Even famous authors have better sales with some books than others. Every one of them would be able to tell you which was his/her most popular book, the one that had the most sales. 

Are you a failure if you have a website or a blog that gets minimal hits? Of course not. You're still a writer, no matter how many readers you have.

Are you a failure if your critique group finds more problems in what you submit to them than praise? Not really. They are trying to help you improve your writing so that it will be acceptable to an editor. 

All the things I've addressed above are the everyday problems a writer encounters. We work toward overcoming, or correcting, them. We are not failures because we're not perfect. 

I agree with Mr. Bradbury. Failure comes only when we stop writing. The other problems are hiccups in the life of a writer.