by C. Michelle Jefferies
I signed a contract with my publisher today.
While I am sitting here with a silly grin on my face, I have noticed one thing that has brought consistent results in my writing.
Taking a chance.
There's a poster that shows a box with the word "you" in it. Written outside that box are the words "Success happens here."
These last few years have been filled with alot of baby steps and giant leaps outside the box that usually defines me.
Completely rewriting my MS
Submitting to many publishing houses and agents
Sending my work in to conference and workshop classes
Pitching to people face to face
Writing a non fiction book completely out of my genre
Writing a Christmas story
Writing a song and entering it in a contest
Have all these things been someting I wouldn't normally do? Yeah
Was it painful sometimes? Oh yeah!
Has it paid off? Yes, tenfold.
It's not easy. I've been so nervous sometimes my knees were shaking. But that little voice that tells me to just give it a chance wont stop and I have to listen to it.
I think it was Lao Tsu that said "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
3 comments:
Congrats on signing your contract and I appreciate your words on taking chances. I've been taking a lot lately and it's nerve wracking but I hope it leads somewhere good, cuz sometimes I wonder if it's worth it.
Yay! I can post!
This so very exciting! And you're absolutely right. There's no way you'd ever have been able to do what you did today unless you'd taken a chance.
Alice and Donna, thanks. I know it's worth it. I'm living proof.
It was one really nice rejection letter from an intern for a really famous agent that caused the whole re-write and led me to the version of the book that just got a contract.
Had neither of us stepped outside that box and taken a chance, her on a personalized rejection, me on taking a 106,000 word MS and literally ripping it to pieces to start over again, I wouldn't be where I am.
Yeah it's nerve wracking, but look at how much you grow when you do it.
Michelle
PS YAY Donna we fixed the comment problem?!?!?!?!?
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