July 9: Hard Work, Keeping at It, Confidence

Andy also found that his spirit was calmed by hard work.  He gravitated to the college newspaper, the Cornell Daily Sun.  One of only two dailies published by an American university--and also Ithaca's only morning paper--its eight pages even carried national and international news, complete with an Associated Press feed that came in every night via the telephone line.  It seemed sophisticated.  Andy's long-running connection with the paper raised his status until by his last year he walked across campus with unprecedented confidence...

The "Andy" in the above paragraph is E. B. White.  When White entered Cornell, he was given that nickname by his fellow students, and he embraced his new identity with relish.  Gone was the shy, sickly young boy.  Instead, "Andy" White was smart, talented, and full of confidence.


Sometimes I have that swagger and confidence, too.  I believe that I'm a good writer.  Talented, even.  Other times, I suffer from incredibly low self-esteem.  My poems seem derivative, sentimental.  I dwell on my failures instead of my successes.  Writing is a difficult avocation.  It sort of depends on acceptance.  Yet, more often than not, a writer receives rejection instead.

But you keep at it.  Keep sending out manuscripts to publishers.  Keep entering writing contests.  Keep sitting down with a pen and paper.  Keep writing.  Confidence comes with experience.  I know good writing.  I know when I write something good.  However, getting published is 25% talent and good writing.  The other 75% is simply luck.  Stephen King's wife rescued a manuscript from the garbage and forced him to finish it.  The manuscript turned out to be Carrie.  Luck.

At the moment, my confidence is at a low ebb.  Despite that fact, tomorrow night, I will submit more poems for publication.  Keeping at it.  That's the whole game.

Saint Marty is rolling the dice.

C'mon, daddy needs a publisher