Perseverance

It is a surprise to me that I have published seven women’s psychological mysteries, since creative writing was my worse subject in school. In fact, in middle school my English teacher said for a final project we were to turn in a creative effort. When I asked if it had to be written she said no. So, I turned in a homemade box of petite tea sandwiches and received my first A in English composition.

Not a promising start.

Then my career in marketing/public relations found me writing speeches, company magazines, press releases, so words were not an unfamiliar medium for conveying information.

The turning point came in the 70s, and the woman’s movement captured my ire. This angry group-speak didn’t represent the women I worked with, or learned my craft from. We were independent, smart women who had succeed in business. Which made me frustrated enough to say, “Well I’m going to write a novel featuring my kind of successful woman.” And, that book took 25 years to publish.

I’m sharing this background with you to illustrate perseverance. Without which my life would have been very dull. At the time I decided to write a book, I traveled for my job, and was in night school earning my MBA. But I had a lot of free time in airports, airplanes and hotels. So, I took a spiral bound notebook (this was before laptops), with me everywhere.  Each time I open it, I’d reread what I had written and asked, “Now what do I want to know?”

I could have given up. But that isn’t me. So, when I got stuck, I enrolled in a local college and used my manuscript for my homework.

The gift of perseverance not only produced a passion for writing, it opened up a new world of friends, all travelling their own path to publication. Some, like my friend Mary Karpin, wakes up at least twice a week with a new idea for a story. I’m not that lucky. I find something that bothers me and ponder it until I find the story. Regardless, why one gets stuck… writer’s block, lack of enthusiasm for something just written, or negativity by others, it is those of us who persevere who are the pros.

Some of us write for fame. Some for a best seller win. And, for some, to convey a story that keeps us up at night until we write The End.

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