You're mad. Crazy!
Yes. Every day we're bombarded with these distressful
words and yes, we refuse to admit it as we sit
alone in a small cramped space, staring sometimes
for days glassy-eyed at the dark square before
us. Waiting desperately for that intoxicating
thought that won't come… to compose that
novel that for years has been screaming to burst
forth and now everything is blank. Are their words
true? Is one mad?
You know too that outside there is warm loving
sunshine. A game of tennis, a heavenly walk in
the woods, playing on the beach with one's children.
All the delightful things with which to fill one's
heart with joy.
Everything—anything—more diverting,
entertaining; yes anything but sitting there trying
to put words to paper. But our ears are stopped.
We are storytellers and the written word is such
a dominating passion with us that we'll slave
to the death through hellish torture to prove
it. Knowing one is gambling one's soul away.
But do we sometimes—discouraged—(dirty
word) shift the madness over to where it can crush
another? It bolsters our courage for all the rejections
from our favourite agent or publisher, thinking
they are too blind to see that we have written
another Gone with the Wind or Harry
Potter. Is it hope or madness that we send
all those queries, synopses, and chapters to agonize
their way to what one hopes is a dream agent,
to have to finally brave that rejection?
Still we battle boldly (madly) on, looking for
that killer opening, that magical word or brilliant
dynamic character that "rocks," as they
say.
Covetous for that block buster and the next story
and the next…
Betty (Bette) Trotter is a member of GVC. She
is making her Spotlight debut with this new article.
Articles may be reprinted in RWA® chapter
newsletters, attributed to the Spotlight.
Non-RWA® newsletters may not reprint articles
without the permission of the authors.
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