5.21.2006

Action, not reaction

I read this at Joe (aka J.A.) Konrath's blog:

Are you discouraged, depressed, angry, or overwhelmed by your writing career?

YES!

Then he offered a list of about 20 complaints and said:

Each of the above complaints is a reaction to something.

Reaction is passive. In fiction, passive is a no-no.

Be active.

TRUE! I hadn't considered the fact that having doubts and feeling frustrated and scared and rejected are reactions.

You got into this business for a reason. Reaching that goal involves action, not reaction.

Getting discouraged, depressed, angry, or overwhelmed isn't going to get you closer to your goal.

But writing, submitting, and promoting will get you closer. Even if you don't immediately see the results.

Don't psych yourself out of the game.

That's what I had been doing: psyching myself out. Sometimes I am productive and feel like I will make it, but other times, when I look at books in a bookstore or read about authors' victories, I get intimidated and discouraged, and end up telling myself that I'll never make it. But that's not true, and I have to keep moving ahead or else I will fulfill my own doomed prophesy.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Precisely, MJ! And thanks for the pep talk. I've recently been feeling very overwhelmed by my thesis. Bit by bit I work on it, but it's scary!

Good luck to you, and don't psych yourself out of the game. Oh, and be agressive! That never hurts.

Anonymous said...

Well, at least there are people waiting for your thesis, whereas in the world of "art" no one is waiting for anything, unless you're Stephen King.

Actually, today I wrote a lot, so that pep talk helped.

Anonymous said...

Sadly, nobody is waiting for my thesis. It's not like the Earth is going to change its axis. The one great thing that the completion of this project will afford me is a piece of F-ing paper that says I really am *this* smart! :)

Anonymous said...

Your professors are waiting for your thesis, right? Otherwise, who are you writing it for?