Persistence. Is That Really The Key?

Persistance. Persistence.

Although I apparently don’t know how to spell it, this word means something to me. Without persistence, I wouldn’t have a completed manuscript, I wouldn’t have a group of writing friends that I’ve come to count on, I wouldn’t have an agent, I would never get to submit my book to publishers, and I would never see it as a finished actual cover-on-the-front book.

I think it’s going to be my 2010 power word. You know that word that you use all year to remind you just what you’re doing and why?

You don’t have a power word?

Dude… get one. My 2009 word was try. I was wimp about just trying new things, and I have to say that I definitely conquered that fear, baby. I couldn’t have done it without the power word.

I talk to so many writers who say things like “I’ve researched three agents, and I plan to send a query to them. If they say no though, I guess it’s back to the drawing board for me.”

Um, what?

You’re just going to give up on your book that you’ve slaved over for the last whoever knows how long because three people said no?

Seriously?

I’m not a big believer in self help books or things like, that but I once watched The Last Lecture with Randy Pausch and he said something that really stuck with me:

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They are there to stop the other people!”

They are there to stop the other people. It’s one of those things that changed my way of thinking. How freakin’ true that is. This isn’t supposed to be easy, because if it was–then everyone would be a published author, and that isn’t what I want.

I want to be one of the few, the proud, the mar… oh wait–that’s a whole different topic for another time, but you get what I’m saying.

I think what Pausch was trying to make us see is that you have to make yourself into the kind of person that jumps that hurdle. You have to get past the brick wall, or you’re just like all those other people.

And who wants to be like everyone else?