On Being Published

ON BEING PUBLISHED

My writing successes have been few and far between, but at least I can claim to be a published writer and the winner of recognised writing competitions. That’s quite an achievement I believe, but it hasn’t made me rich or famous. I firmly believe the novel which eludes me could be my claim to fame. It’s said everyone has a book inside them, but if that’s true then mine is hiding between parts of my anatomy I cannot access. But the search will continue, not for the fame and fortune, (who am I kidding?) but to achieve a long-established ambition and to leave a small mark on the world to show I passed through.

Even as a child I planned on writing a book one day and several teachers along the way assured me I would. Maybe they were just being kind to a pupil not very gifted in other areas. My relationship with words has always been a strong one, be it writing poetry for weddings and retirements, long letters to family and friends or knocking the spots off a Scrabble opponent. In more recent times I’ve been amazed to discover how satisfying and relatively easy it became to compose short stories in several different genres. I still look back at some of them and ask the question “Did I really write this?”

Sometimes I wonder where the ideas come from and how it all came together, but of course we all know the biggest factor in becoming a successful writer is that key word ‘imagination.’ Without it, no writer can ever succeed or hope to be published in the world of fiction.

I’ve recently suspected my imagination is not powerful enough to stretch to a full blown novel and I’d just restrict myself to short stories, articles and poetry. But then along came the blog. Proof if ever we needed it that everyday life can be interesting, entertaining, moving or hilariously funny. There are arguments for and against writing about what you know, but the blog for me is the perfect opportunity to find that elusive theme for a novel. It may be something from one of my own entries, a comment left or just a simple phrase which triggers an idea or it could be something I read or observe in someone else’s blog, but I firmly believe there are a million and one storylines here in Blogville just begging to be developed.

I’m not actively looking for one at the moment, but I have a sneaky feeling one day something will jump out at me from a blog page and maybe, just maybe, the long-awaited novel will be born. Whether it would ever be published is another matter entirely, but success or failure would not change a thing for me. Okay maybe my address, wardrobe, holidays and lifestyle would alter dramatically, but writing is as essential to my daily existence as breathing. I cannot envisage a future without the reading and writing of blogs, no matter how rich or famous I become. In my dreams.

What would I do with my first check? Easy. Pay for a conference, preferably aboard a cruise ship, for all my wonderful friends here at WDC. I’m not guaranteeing much serious writing would be achieved but hell, we’d sure have something to blog about.

WORD COUNT 560