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| Don't think dreaming big is wise? Well... it worked for me... as shown above! |
When my daughter is "on deck" at softball, I always ask her, "Lacy, are you going to hit the ball?"
At the beginning of the season, it never fails. She ALWAYS responds with a shrug of her shoulder and says, "I might."
And Mommy responds with a classic hands-on-hips lecture.
You aren't going to "might" hit the ball! You go out there and hit that dad gum ball. I wanna hear you yell, "YES, I WILL HIT THAT BALL!!!!!" Be CONFIDENT. You CAN do this.
Because my sweetie CAN hit that ball. She's actually REALLY good at it.
And then, after she smiles and says, "Yeah, I'm gonna hit the ball, Momma" she stands in the "on deck" spot (not sure what that is really called) and practices hitting the ball while the player in front of her does so.
She swings to warm up her arm. She psychs herself up, determined to hit that ball.
And about 50% of the time, she does.
Publication is the same way. We can't go into this expecting to fail. We can't get up to bat with our manuscripts and be like, "No one is going to like it. No one will publish this."
Because if we don't believe in our writing... why should a publisher? And even more, why should a reader?
We use our heart when we're writing. Writing can be very emotional. So if your heart isn't convinced that you can write a sellable book...then there's a good possibility that your heart won't be 100% in it. You do NOT want your heart giving a half-hearted effort:-)
Now for you pessimists out there...
I know there is a lot of importance in managing expectations and making sure we don't get too cocky in our writing. Sometimes that can bring forth a bit of disillusionment and things like people sending agents crazy queries like, "God told me you'd be my agent and that my book will be published" or "This is the BEST manuscript you will read this year."
Yeah, don't be uppity. It doesn't look good on you. Kinda like bell-bottoms or super poofy bangs.
But there is also a lot of value in believing in our dream, in shooting for the stars, in trusting that God has GOOD things in store for us.
The worse thing that can happen is that you fail.
And honestly, whether you believe or not, that is always in the cards as a possibility.
If you don't try... you've failed before you start.
Discuss: Are you a half-full or half-empty writer? How much do YOU believe in your writing? When you start thinking negative thoughts, what do you do to combat them?
