Room To Fail

OK, we’ve detailed the first five steps of the Lifewriting process:

1. Write a sentence a day
2. Write 1–4 stories a month
3. Polish and submit
4. Don’t rewrite except to editorial request
5. Read 10X what you write

And now the capper:

1. Repeat this process 100X

Once upon a time I was an unpublished writer who hungered for a career. But all I got were rejections, and it was wearing me down. The question wasn’t precisely whether I could be published — that, I believed, was inevitable. But could I ever publish enough to build a career?

I was in my 20’s at the time, and my Mother was terrified for me that my career, and life, would crash and burn. That had pretty much happened to my Dad, who had built a moderate career as a singer, ultimately failed, and the fall-out from that probably ended their marriage. On some level I understood her concern, and wondered what else I might do with my life, if the writing didn’t work out.

Confidence was rarely my problem — I figured I could get on the executive track at a company like Xerox and do fine…but I wanted the writing career. Was there a point beyond which it would be foolish to keep trying? After all, I’d dropped out of college and was taking menial jobs around Hollywood just to sniff my way into the industry. Certainly I really wanted this. But if a day came when I had to admit it wasn’t working…when did I want that day to come…