Say what now?
Last night I was going through my file cabinet and came across some of the stories that I wrote as a kid. The very first chapter book (no pictures!) that I wrote was at eight or nine. I was really big into horses back then and had lots of horsey paraphernalia. I also loved (still do) notebooks, journals, diaries, any kind of bound object with paper inside. Put those things together and you've got a spiral bound notebook with a cowgirl and a horse on the cover.
Don't you wish you had a notebook exactly like this? If the sheer magnificence of it isn't enough to sway you, it only cost $1.16!
I wrote that first chapter book inside it. It was called Maybe in a Million Years. Reading through all fifteen chapters of it I still have no clue where that title came from and what it has to do with the story, but hey, the logic of an eight year-old...
It even has a synopsis on the inside of the cover which says: Lisa and Jessica sent Joey to military school to shape up, but Lisa's parents decide to go live in France. What will they do? They can't get Lisa's parents to change their minds without Joey's help.
I don't know about you, but I think that is riveting stuff right there. I should immediately book a ticket to NYC and march myself over to Random House and demand publication. No other course of action makes sense. Am I right?
Sometimes I think it's silly to want to be published. I joke about being the next J. K. Rowling, but really I don't expect to make $1000 much less billions, so it's not like I've got unrealistic expectations. Yet I still have those thoughts from time to time (probably more often than I want to admit) where I wonder if it's all just a colossal waste of time. I mean isn't everyone writing a book at some point in their lives? It sure seems like it.
I need to keep reminding myself that even if I don't ever get published, or if I do, but don't make a dime, writing is something that I've always done because I enjoy it. Or at least I should enjoy it (more). I certainly enjoyed it at eight or I wouldn't have made it through fifteen chapters.
3 comments:
I have one of those spiral notebooks sitting right here in the drawer next to me. For me, it was poetry and, like you, I think it was pretty darn good.
I'm jealous of your fancy horsey pic though, mine is just a simple green cover and yeah, right around $1.50
We should book that flight to NYC together and demand recognition for our under-appreciated talents!
And ITA that in the end, you have to write for yourself first, without that, the passion, the drive, you have nothing.
I think that if you want to take writing seriously (as in striving for publication) then you have to treat it as more than a hobby and more than just writing for yourself, but, on the other hand, you have to remind yourself that you picked writing to take seriously because you do love it, or else you did before you stressed yourself out over the task of taking it seriously...lol.
And of course by "you" I mean the universal you since I don't know if the specific you still wants to get published. ;-)
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