Wise Words

Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people.


- Randy Pausch ( 1960-2008 )

A lesson in building tension and stakes

I couldn't write today.

I couldn't write because my son has been diagnosed with pneumonia.

My son has pneumonia, which means we may not be allowed to fly to Scotland on Thursday.

We are flying to Scotland on Thursday to celebrate my husband's 40th birthday with his family.

We are traveling 4000 miles to celebrate with the family because one family member is quite ill and we don't know how much more time well will have together.


Sometimes life gives you a harsh example of how upping the stakes can effect the impact of a story. Lesson learned, but frankly I would have rather learned it from a book.

In Praise of Praise

The lovely Julie Kibler over at What Women Write has a fantastic post today about The Other Kind of Critique. In other words, praise.

Her point, and a great one at that, is how we get so focused on tough critiques to improve our work, that we sometimes forget to embrace the compliments we get as well. At the end of her post, she challenged us to post something about praise we've received. (Go read the whole post here.)

Rejections on partials and fulls can be tough to take, but sometimes a few words in a rejection can offer that little bit of solace, that push to keep going. Sure, maybe its a line, a form letter. But sometimes it isn't. And we should take some joy in that.

I went back through some of my rejections and pulled out some personal feedback:

• I love your writing, and the setting and believe you have a great deal of promise.
• I think you are a lovely writer.
• You have a fantastic manuscript; the details of the house and the intrigue are all fascinating – and it’s well written
• The writing is really hard to fault
• Your writing is confident and commercial 

Granted, none of these got me an offer of representation. But they did make me believe it could happen in the future. And sometimes, that's all we need.

So think about the praise you've received, no matter how big or how small, and let it sink in. Let it wash over you and fill you with warmth and hope. And share your good news, the praise you've received, because happiness grows with sharing.