Monday, July 6, 2009

Dare to Dream


Quote of the Day:
There are people who put their dreams in a little box and say, 'Yes, I've got dreams, of course I've got dreams.' Then they put the box away and bring it out once in awhile to look in it, and yep, they're still there. These are great dreams, but they never even get out of the box. It takes an uncommon amount of guts to put your dreams on the line, to hold them up and say, 'How good or how bad am I' That's where courage comes in. ~Erma Bombeck


My husband has often asked me, as I sob over some rejection or drag my weary butt around the house after 3 hours of sleep because I’ve stayed up all night writing, why I bother doing this. And my answer…because it’s my dream. I do it for the same reason that gymnasts compete with broken bones, why actors go on stage even though they have the flu, why teachers teach even if the kids aren’t listening.

It’s my dream to see my name on my very own book on that shelf in the bookstore. I’ll always write, whether I get published or not, but the dream of being published…that is why I work my fingers to the bone, take rejection after rejection and continue to keep on sending queries, and writing blog posts and novels and non-fiction books and essays.

What are your dreams? Are you in this to be published? Or is that just a pleasant side effect of the writing?

12 comments:

Stephanie McGee said...

I'd love to be published, it's a fact. But I really do view it as sort of the culmination of my hard work that I do to gain some sort of cathartic release. I know that sounds corny and cliche, but it's true. I write because I'm compelled to. There are stories that come to my brain, some work better as poems, some as short stories, etc, but they demand to be written and will not rest until they're on the page.

Getting paid is the pleasant side effect.

Katie Salidas said...

I'm right there with you. Everytime I get a rejection, I think, "screw this, it's not worth it."
Then, after I have calmed down, I remember how much I want to be published. After that, I'm back on the computer; typing away, or researching the next agent to submit to, or reworking my query, anything to keep going and someday make that dream a reality.

Scott said...

I write for the sheer joy of writing. Do I dream of being published? Heck, yes. Is it worth the lack of sleep, the obsessive writing notes at stoplights, the getting out of bed after I'm all comfortable because an idea has suddenly occurred to me, and all the other jazz? Heck, yeah.

To sleep, perchance to dream . . .

S

B.J. Anderson said...

I love the delusions of grandeur! And my dream is what I'm doing right now,which is writing. Of course, I also dream of getting published, so hopefully that will come in time. Good luck to you in your dreams as well, Michelle!

Anonymous said...

I love this...it is so right where I am at the moment. I have to ask myself that question a lt sometimes...and it keeps coming back to the same thing - I want to get published...so I keep doing this.

Rebecca Knight said...

EX. ACTLY.

Thank you for this post! We all face so much rejection and spend so many hours doing what we do; we have to remember why we're doing it just to keep going.

My ultimate dream is to be able to make writing my job, which means it has to pay some bills :). I love it, and I just want to do it as much as possible.

It's good to be gustsy!

Jamie D. said...

I want to be published, but I'm past the "obsessed with publication" point. I didn't like what the pressure I put on myself to get published someday was doing to me (crippling my writing), so I started giving some of my work away free (on my blog). Just doing that made me feel like my work was already "out there", that even if I never got published, I'd still have shared my writing with the world. And really, that's all publication is, just on a much, much larger scale. With that all-encompassing pressure taken off, I'm now able to write more and better than before. Ironically, that may improve my chances of actually publishing someday.

I used to dream of being able to make a living writing (quit the day job), but that dream has been tempered with a heavy dose of reality, and the fact that my husband would never be comfortable with writing as my career unless it was NYT-bestseller big. Financial security is a big issue with him. It's just the way he is. I've accepted that, and my goals now are simply to make a good side-income eventually, and enjoy the writing.

Unless someday I happen to become a NYT Bestselling author with lots of stable revenue... :-)

Kathryn Hupp-Harris said...

I'm afraid I'm in it for the long haul, just like you.

I love that pic at the bottom of your post BTW.

Elana Johnson said...

There are so many downers in this business, if the dream isn't alive, I would quit. So as long as the dream lives, I write.

MIITB said...

I love this post. I am going through something similar, but with my hubby. It's a hard thing deciding between reality and dreams. I feel there is always a happy medium, we just have to find it.
P.S. I love Ermma Bombeck, just discovering most of her work now.

Lisa Guill said...

Writing to be published is the main reason I do this...which is why I get freaked out when I read how difficult it is to actually make it in this industry! Sigh.

Lately I have come to realize that writing is something I need to do, regardless of whether the reward is money, fame, or merely my own satisfaction. I would LOVE to be able to write for a living, and for the last ten years I've thought and spoke of nothing else. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but it is hard to find that balance between the courage to persevere and realistic expectations.

I, too, dare to dream :)

Susan R. Mills said...

I love the quote today! This is a scary subject for me, though. At first, I wrote because I loved to write. Lately, however, I really want to see my works published. It's a dream for me also. That publishing part has taken a little bit of the fun out of it, if you know what I mean. I spend more time worrying about selling my book than writing my next one. I'm trying to get back to the "fun" of writing and quit fretting over the rejections.