FACING “FAILURE”

by Kathy Cannon Wiechman

  

Today's post is written for the IWSG's monthly blog hop. Visit the link below for more information.

http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/2014/09/insecure-writers-support-group.html

In June, I gave a talk to the local chapter of Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators on my 40-year journey to a published novel. That’s not a typo. It took me 40 years.

When I looked back over all those years, I saw what seemed at the time to be failures. I see now that they were just steps in my journey. Any step that moved me forward was not a failure.

Slow and steady got Kathy her publishing contract.

Some of those steps were learning experiences at workshops, classes, and conferences. Forty years has taught me a great deal. When I look back at the naïve young beginner I was when I started, I am surprised by how little I knew.

I networked and made contacts. Even if those contacts did not land me a book contract, they moved me forward with dealing with professionals and taught me about the publishing industry. Some of those contacts taught me how NOT to deal with people and some became dear friends.

Other steps were days, months, and years of writing. My about-to-be-published novel is actually the eleventh one I wrote. Were the others failures? No way. Each taught me more and more about plotting, character, and Voice. Each led me closer to the one that’s being published. Each made me a better writer. (And there is still a chance that a rewrite of Number 9 will be published. Time will tell. I haven’t given up on it yet.)

Every step in my journey was a necessary one for me to take. I am extremely proud of my novel LIKE A RIVER (due out in April from Calkins Creek). I am glad that my first published novel was not written by that naïve young beginner, but by the experienced, seasoned writer I am now.

What I am telling you today is that the only failure is quitting. Everything else is just a step forward in your writer’s journey. Appreciate each one for what it is. And I hope your journey will not take you 40 years.

THE SPIDER

Today's post is part of the

by Kathy Cannon Wiechman

One day last summer when I walked out to my front porch to water my flowers, I walked through a spider web—a sticky, cling-to-my-face spider web. I knocked down the entire web.

The next day, it was back. This time the sun caught on its threads and I saw it before I walked into it. Again, I knocked it down.

Day after day, it happened again. And day after day, I knocked it down. I knew to get rid of it once and for all, I had to catch the culprit. Yes, I know that spiders kill harmful insects. And yes, I read CHARLOTTE’S WEB. But this was no Charlotte, and I was getting annoyed.

I wound the web around a stick, spider and all, and relocated it away from my yard.

I no longer walk through a spider web to water my flowers (which have finished out their season now). I don’t know if the spider spins its webs in my neighbor’s yard. But that spider was a lesson in persistence for me. It kept spinning webs even though it had to spin a new one every day. It never gave up.

As a writer, I have to persist as well. After each rejection, I have to go over my work, fix what can be fixed and try again. Sometimes I have to start all over from the beginning. But I’m a writer. I keep spinning those stories and shaping those words. I’ll never give up.