Timing and Perseverance: the Keys To Success as a Writer

I’m thinking today of timing—how important it is to success. Timing and perseverance: the two go together. If I hadn’t persisted as a writer, writing daily and sending out queries to potential publishers for my various novels and poetry collections, I would not have a poetry collection in print (All This) or be anticipating the publication of Fling, one of my novels in July 2015.

I’m also noticing the seasonal aspect of creativity, how cyclic it is. That too is hard to grasp. I want it all the time. I’m afraid if it isn’t there, it won’t return. But I need to remember that if I pursue my creative impulses, and if they’re in accordance with my abilities, then there will be success. Maybe not financially, though that would be nice. But I’ll experience the satisfaction of achieving what I’m capable of.

I must keep in mind that the cup will empty, fullness will recede, as happens each night with the waxing and waning energies of the moon. I can’t help but hear “moo” when I write moon, those old nursery rhymes of the cow jumping over the moon still playing in my imagination. Of course, cows are very much moon creatures, with their emptying and filling, the various stomachs they have for digesting food that turns into nourishing milk. They’re a wonderful symbol for the creative person.

But perseverance is the key word. I need to keep this in mind to combat the bombardment of negative things I’m reading about being a writer. Not only is publishing like finding a needle in a haystack—especially publishing fiction—but also only five percent of novelists support themselves on their writing.