Today’s muse comes from this super inspiring post on the Operation Awesome blog. The post talks about how writers are strong and not neurotic. Speaking for myself, I do tend to be obsessive about certain things—like checking my email, folding my towels a certain way, loading the dishwasher a certain way—but I don’t consider myself neurotic. The Operation Awesome post points out that it takes strength and bravery and resilience to be a writer.

I agree. It’s hard to sit in front of a blank page and create a world and characters and storyline to tie them all together. And after the writing comes the submitting—which is often harder than writing the work in the first place. And the waiting—oh the waiting!!

And when the replies do start rolling in 95% (give or take) will likely be rejections. Does the writer give up? Okay, some might, but those who don’t will continue to send out more queries. Then they will write more work, send it out, and start all over again until someday they break through. An agent signing or book deal! Hooray!

But it doesn’t end there. The book gets published and the reviews start rolling in. Not all of them will be “I loved this” and that’s not always easy to take either. But the writer doesn’t give up. They write more and publish more (hopefully) and take the good with the bad.

And there WILL be bad. We’ve all had those days and will likely have more on our road to publication (and beyond). It’s okay to feel down now and then. The trick is not to stay down! We have to pick ourselves up and get back to work.

If our dreams are slammed against the harsh reality wall of the world and shattered into millions of pieces, we must pick them up, reshape them, and make ourselves a new dream!

I think an excerpt from a song in Disney’s Cinderella says it best:

“No matter how your heart is grieving

If you keep on believing

The dream that you wish will come true.”

Write and Dream on!