The Publishing Dream

Have you ever had such a great idea for a novel that you were sure you were not only going to become an overnight success, you were going to make millions, launch a movie and a TV series, and enter the rarified circle of literary who's who? And, bursting with your own genius, did you find once you put pen to paper/fingers to keyboard, that your story didn't pop as you imagined it would? It happens to the best of us.

We all have dreams. Maybe they aren’t as grandiose; maybe you’ve kept a tight reign on flights of fancy and imagine “merely” publishing to moderate success. It’s still a dream, and dreams, no matter their breadth and depth, can be very motivating. And, they can be demotivating if we don't find our dream coming true with a flick of a magic wand.

I have good news. Brilliant writing always involves a lot of work and revision. Shakespeare’s plays didn’t fall out of his quill fully formed—nor do any of the books you love most arrive whole. Where’s the good news in this? The good news is that while your idea when it first hits the page might not be the brilliant masterpiece you envisioned, you can transform it. It will just take patience and work and lots of revision.

There’s an popular idea of writers as dreamy folk with lots of time on their hands. Let’s dispel that myth. There is a time for dreaming and imagination for sure, but the true magic, I believe, is in the work of writing. Let’s get to it.