Keep on until the end

The other day, dear friend and artiste Cro Magnon spoke of his troubles in the tower he has been steadily building over the summer. Everything had gone well until a few mismeasured roof beams threw a huge wrench in his chain. He sounded so dejected about the whole thing, whereas before, he had expressed such joy and exuberance. We were all glad when, the next day or so, he jumped right back into the project, found a solution, and now is already on the track toward completion.

Here's what he taught me: never give up. When you have given everything to a project that you love, little glitches can and must be worked out. Take a break, refresh, find solutions, and finish what you started. In the long range no one is going to know where you messed up or how hard the process was. In relations to writing: no one is going to know how many times you wrote your first chapter, or how many agents rejected your book before finding THE ONE. When someone walks into Borders and picks your shiny book off the shelf and starts reading the back cover, they won't know the process. Only you know, and it can be your little badge of honor.

If you keep on with the original passion and joy that you started with, things will work themselves out. Let's remember this. Every. Single Day.