Sunday, August 5, 2012

The Query Trenches: High Risk, High Reward

I haven't talked much about my real life, but during the day, I'm an engineer.

It's exactly this awesome. No more, no less.
And in engineering, they always say that risk is a bad thing. A risky project means you don't know how it's going to turn out. Risk is something to be eliminated as much as possible, or our corporate overlords get antsy.

Well, it doesn't work that way with writing, does it? There is no easy path, no safe haven. After all, if we wanted to be safe, and just be like everyone else, we wouldn't be in this field, would we?

I've thought about this a lot over the years, and through all the rejections, and the workshops, and the rewrites, one thing never seems to change.

There is nothing easy about any of this.

No matter what your friends, or your co-workers, or your parents say, writing is not easy. It has never been, or will ever be easy. The only people who think it's easy are people who haven't tried it.

Because writing is about putting yourself out there. Baring yourself to the world, saying "This is me. You can take it or leave it." Only the risk with that is that there's a very real chance that the world will look at you and say "Pass."

If you think about it, very few other careers force you to do that.

To put yourself out there. To put it all on the line.

And yet, we do that. Every single time we send out that query. We put ourselves out there, for rejection, for ridicule. I mean, who would go through that, time after time after time? Who would be so crazy?

We do. Because we're writers.

Writers put themselves out there. Writers not only accept that risk of rejection, we embrace it. Writers don't just dream.

There's a saying I've always remembered, by philosopher and immortal cowboy John Wayne.

"Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway."

And we're ready to saddle up. We've been itching to saddle up for a long time now.

After all, whenever there's High Risk, there's High Reward.

So, tomorrow, we query. Tomorrow, we put it all on the line.

Here. We. Go.


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