…the risk doesn’t pay off and it blows up in your face.
…the risk doesn’t pay off and no one even notices and that makes it worse somehow.
…it does pay off and in wonderful ways.
…you think those brainy people who said “it takes seeing your name up to eight times before people remember it” were high off of ganja and just chose a number everyone would believe.
…you have to stop being so business-minded and follow your gut, your heart, because even if it doesn’t pay off, you can’t put a price on believing in yourself.
…you have to stop fighting the market completely on principle and think, ok, how can I do it in a way that won’t make me feel I’ve sold my soul for accolades.
…when you stop fighting things on principle you realize, hey, I kind of like doing this.
…delusion is what gets you through.
…hitting rock bottom is the only way you can finally look up and realize delusion is not a full-throttle game plan. It’s just the thing you may need to be able to breathe through that unbearable heartache for a little while. And then you leave it behind, because now the only place to go is up.
…you can look back and see all those agents and editors were right. The book was shit.
…you can look back and see all those agents and editors were wrong. The book had magic.
…you can fully understand what someone did for you.
…you accept drive is probably more important than talent.
…writing is the only way to get past a block.
…excuses fall away and you do something amazing.
…excuses stand in your way and you look around and you’re the only person in that same position you started in.
…you have to accept your big break will never come.
…you have to accept your big break did come and this is it.
…you will almost kill yourself trying to jump out of the shower because that one plot point finally makes sense.
…you will pretend to write but really you just played Jewel Quest all day.
…you listen to the wrong person.
…you were the one who gave the bad advice.
…you have to stop begrudging someone else’s success.
…you have to celebrate that crap paragraph that took you all day to write.
…you will cry.
…you will curse.
…you need to get the hell off of Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr etc.
…you will read something that inspires you.
…you will read something that makes you believe the author, editor, publisher were toking with the brains who said “at least eight times…”
…you’ll feel out of the loop.
…you’ll listen to what’s not being said.
…it is your ego.
…you will be so low you don’t know what the hell to do and someone will come along and remind you why you do this thing in the first damn place.
…you have to remind yourself why you do this thing in the first damn place because no one else will
….you didn’t dream big enough because you simply couldn’t phantom the possibilities. You were too busy reaching for the stars that you could see with your naked eye instead of understanding the universe is infinite.
…there is only one thing that matters and that never changes—the story.