Everyone feels like failure is horrible. I get that. Believe me.
But there is something magical and freeing about it, too.
Every time you write a book that gets rejected or gets a bad review, you have a chance to rethink, grow it, and make it bigger, better, and more poignant.
That’s an opportunity.
It’s true for writers, actors, readers, and pretty much all humans.
“As actors, you become an expert at starting over,” Lupita Nyong’o said to Backstage. “Every single role brings with it an ignorance and an insecurity, and so you have to approach it with the same curiosity and humility. I’m always nervous. Doesn’t matter how many times I do this. But I remind myself it’s because I care. Steve (McQueen, director) would say, ‘Fail and then fail better!’ And that environment was so liberating. It’s not about getting it right. It’s about getting it truthful.”
Every blank page, every new story, is an opportunity to get it right. Every sentences is an opportunity to fix things and make them shinier.
Each time, I have a cringe-worthy moment, I try to remind myself about this – that it’s an opportunity to make my work or myself even better.
Sometimes, I even listen.
Writing News
Carrie will be at The Books-A-Million in South Portland, Maine on August 8.
The Spy Who Played Baseball is a picture book biography about Moe Berg. And… there’s a movie out now about Moe Berg, a major league baseball player who became a spy. How cool is that?
You should totally buy Carrie’s book about Moe. It’s awesome and quirky and fun.
OUR PODCAST DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE.
Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness as we talk about random thoughts, writing advice and life tips. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of. Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow.
Writing Coach
Carrie offers solo writing coach services, but she’s also teaching a Write! Submit! Support! six-month class online via the Writing Barn in Austin. For details about that class, check out this link. For more about Carrie’s individual coaching, click here.
Ebook Sale
And finally, for the month of July, my book FLYING is on sale in ebook version on multiple platforms, which means not just Amazon. It’s a cheap way to have an awesome read in a book that’s basically Men in Black meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer but with chocolate-covered pretzels.
