Making the Climb

First, a quiz: Where did I take this photo?
A. Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah
B. Bryce Canyon National Park, Bryce Canyon, Utah
C. Grand Canyon National Park, North Rim, Arizona

Thanks to the wonders of technology I was able to pre-load a few posts last week, but I was actually busy exploring these three parks–plus visiting a rodeo, an animal sanctuary, riding horses, baking in 114 F weather in Vegas, seeing a Cirque du Soleil show (“O”) and eating waaay too much French toast via breakfast buffet. The kicker was waking at 4ish a.m. to catch a flight yesterday morning, then dealing with the trials and tribulations present at the JFK airport in NYC during a high terror alert. It doesn’t calm an already flight-wary person to witness an airplane being surrounded by police and other vehicles with flashing red lights just hours before you’re supposed to board a plane by the same line (Delta, if you’re wondering). We had delay after delay following that incident, until finally–after 9 1/2 hours of wait–we boarded our metal bird for a blissfully uneventful ride home. We walked through the door at about 2:30 a.m. and landed like felled trees in our beds. So maybe you’ll understand why I’m feeling tired and why this post is super late reaching you. I’m on west-coast time (like the west coast of Japan, maybe).

Anyhoo, thanks for bearing with…I promise to find something useful to say here.

Somewhere between Vegas and NYC I turned on my AlphaSmart and reviewed notes I took at a writing conference last year. Long-time readers might remember my post about the brilliant Michael Hauge and his talk on Identity and Essence, and how these things relate to character arcs. (If you haven’t read the post, you can read it HERE, and read my later interview with Michael HERE.) What popped out of those old notes for me was a question Michael posed to all of us at the end of his hours-long session: What won’t you do to succeed?

He asked us to fill in this blank: “I’ll do whatever it takes to sell my novel. Just don’t ask me to ___ because it’s just not me.” He wasn’t talking about stripping your skivvies for the publisher, either; he was looking for critical missing elements. Some might answer the question by saying, “ask for help,” while others refuse to “follow a formula” or “pursue an agent” or “question an editor” or “demand enough free time from my family” or “learn Kung Fu.”

Hauge said that if you identify what your barriers are, you’ve found what is likely standing between you and success, you can make the climb to conquer your personal mountain. Make the change, do what you need to do, and you will, as Hauge puts it, “be in your passion, and there is no way you won’t be successful.”

I’m not ready to submit my wip yet, but that time is drawing near; maybe by the end of summer or sometime in the fall I’ll be ready. I think my personal barriers revolve around the submission process though. Don’t ask me to submit and submit and submit, endlessly, constantly, even after a pile up of rejections… I hate the process. I hate writing query letters (I’m lucky not to have to do that for my freelance work!). I even hate the easy stuff–printing out my manuscript and making sure I have a SASE and filling out the bloody envelope. The whole things feels like a tremendous effort for me. But I’ll have to do it. I will. It’s my personal mountain, but I’m determined to scale it.

What are (or have been) your personal barriers to success? What part of the writing/editing/submitting process makes you feel the greatest resistance?

That pic, by the way, is of Bryce Canyon; some of you may recognize the tips of a few HooDoos. Here’s a more illuminating pic. Not exactly a mountain I climbed, but there was a trail there that took us below the rim and we had quite a hike back up to the lip. We’re all capable of making the climb. It just takes putting one foot in front of the other. Me, though, I’m going to sleep first…

Write on, all!

Therese Walsh

Therese Walsh (she/her) co-founded Writer Unboxed in 2006 and is the site’s editorial director. She was the editor of WU’s only book, Author in Progress, and runs the Writer Unboxed UnConference.

Her second novel, The Moon Sisters, received starred reviews and was named one of the best books of the year by Library Journal and Book Riot.

Learn more about Therese on her website, and sign up for her newsletter to be among the first to hear about any new projects.

www.theresewalsh.com/