Opportunity Knocked and Ran Away. But Don’t Worry, I Caught It

Sometimes when an opportunity knocks, you have to open the door, regardless of whether or not you’re still in your pajamas and slippers. Or in my case, when a thousand butterflies are flying around in my stomach, as my finger hovers over the “send” button.

So, here’s what happened:

• Recently, a group of amazing writers decided to put out an anthology containing the first five thousand words of their sci-fi romances.
• I’d been playing with a sci-fi romance for a short time and LOVED it. But the last time I wrote a true romance (the romance being the bigger focus than the fantasy), I ended up feeling embarrassed and like a failure. The feedback I received was a bit crushing, so I left the romance in the darkest corner of my files and tried to pretend it never existed.
• Therefore, I was nervous about writing another one.
• The interesting thing is that over the past couple of years (since my embarrassing experience) I’ve become a little more confident of a writer. Part of that is because of Aeon Igni and Tara Rane, my fellow writers. They write romance in its truest form, and they’ve had a number of kind and encouraging things to say.
• The other part of my growing confidence has to do with the fact that I’m growing as a writer. Just like a baseball player who trains more, I’m improving my skill. So I’m more confident, because I am a better writer than I was before.
• Anyway, the opportunity to join this amazing project presented itself, but I was afraid. I mean, really afraid. Would I embarrass myself again? All my work up until this point has been heavily reviewed by my trusted critique group members, so I wasn’t just diving into a pool… I was diving off a cliff.
• But sometimes, I think, you just have to trust yourself. Even though you’re taking a risk, even though it’s scary, you have to take a chance.
• So I did. I “finished” my story and sent it off.
• Now, my name is listed as an author in the anthology. (I’ll give a shout out when it comes out.)
• I’m proud of myself for taking this chance. Whether I “fail” or “succeed” later on, nothing can take away from the fact that I went out-on-a-limb and believed in my work enough to try.
• However, I’ll look forward to the responses and reviews when the time comes. That will be the final test, in my mind, of whether or not this risk was worth taking.

Opportunities often knock and run away. You’ve got to decide whether to chase them down and wrestle them to the ground, or watch them run away and always wonder: what could’ve been?

 

What kind of writer do you think you are?