Steppingstones to Greatness
“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failures is another steppingstone to greatness.” —Oprah Winfrey
I wrote my first novel when I was thirteen years old. I kidnapped my sister’s typewriter, and I used the back page of mail as my paper. I have always wanted to write. I don’t know why, but that is just how I was born. I spent hours perfecting my printing and my handwriting. I spent even more time developing my signature for my book signing. How ironic is it that I have not published a book? Fear is a thief and a robber. My novel was called Days Like These, and it was about teenage love. I knew nothing about teenage love except for what I saw on television and read in other books, but I created characters, and I gave them lives. I outlined my chapters, and I didn’t have the slightest idea what I was doing, but I did it. Unfortunately, that manuscript was lost to a disaster called life.
Since then I have written four other novels, hundreds of poems and essays and several screenplays. I have yet to publish anything. Fear has had me by the throat all of my life. I could give reasons as to why I was afraid, but the truth is the same no matter which reason I give. I had no confidence. I had no reason to think that anyone would want to read anything that I wrote. I was afraid that my work as my life would go unnoticed and that would kill me. What I didn’t realize is that my fear was the same no matter where on the circle I found it. If I keep my work to myself, it goes unrecognized. If I publish it and no one notices, it goes unrecognized. Fear will cause you to lose. If I publish it and even one other person reads my work, then I have succeeded. I have made a difference for them and me.
It is easy to talk about what we want to do, but doing it is a different thing. I am doing it now. I have decided to self-publish a book of essays, poems, and short stories. I have promised it to myself, and I will not break that promise.
Fear is so intense that it will make you believe that nothing is going right in the process. I had an editor, and then I didn’t. I had a cover, and then I didn’t. The year is almost over, and my promise ends at midnight on December 31st and if not fulfilled my books will all turn to pumpkins. I have to do this.
Wish me success.
The Writer
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