Failure, Fear Of
Sep. 29th, 2009 09:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deborahjrossCourtesy of Editorial Ass, some thoughts both comforting and disquieting.
Life has no sure bets. Writing has even fewer. Publishing has even even fewer. And yet we write -- and keep trying for publication. What do we do emotionally/psychologically/spiritually with the reality of dismal odds? Of rampant tales of wonderful books -- far better than anything we could produce -- bombing? Of our favorite publisher going under? Or selling out to a megacorp interested only in bottom line pablum?
How do we continue to take the risks that are essential to growth in such a fear-charged atmosphere? The essay doesn't necessarily offer an answer, but does point out how we give fear-of-failure enormous privilege to cripple our dreams.
Life has no sure bets. Writing has even fewer. Publishing has even even fewer. And yet we write -- and keep trying for publication. What do we do emotionally/psychologically/spiritually with the reality of dismal odds? Of rampant tales of wonderful books -- far better than anything we could produce -- bombing? Of our favorite publisher going under? Or selling out to a megacorp interested only in bottom line pablum?
How do we continue to take the risks that are essential to growth in such a fear-charged atmosphere? The essay doesn't necessarily offer an answer, but does point out how we give fear-of-failure enormous privilege to cripple our dreams.
