Failing is just another step towards success.
By Elizabeth Cutright
© 2012 The Daily Creative Writer

It’s a cold and wintery day here in Daily Creative Writer Land (“Land” being normally Southern California, where the seasons take forever to change). I’m sitting on my couch with my faithful – but typically moody – cat by my side, wondering just what the hell to write about after this recent holiday break.

I talked a brave game about the importance of keeping your routine during times of upheaval – and for many of us, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years fall neatly into that categorization – but I failed dismally when it came to implementation. I have to admit, that when the mashed potatoes called, and the pumpkin pie’s siren song rang out, I abandoned all pretense and threw those morning pages right out the window. Instead, I spent my days in a flurry of great meals, familiar company, and a cocktail or two to dampen down the angst.

But in a way, we are all failed architects – drawing up blueprints of a perfect scenario only to skimp on the concrete or fail to lay a foundation altogether (and let’s not mention hanging drywall or laying tile or all those other construction metaphors that can be coopted by the struggling writer).  Failure is inevitable in some ways – since it’s pretty much built in there right from the start.
What is it they say?  Mortals plan and the gods laugh?

Even our most “best-laid-plans” can go awry.  If anything, the ubiquity of failure should only make you feel more confident, more able to finish what you’ve started…eventually.

We may all write alone – hovering over laptops or hunched over Moleskines – but that doesn’t mean we’re not all in this together.  So let’s all grab some leftovers, crack our knuckles and start anew.  Practice makes perfect they say and just because it’s a cliché doesn’t mean it isn’t true. So let’s start again and write another first sentence, plot out another debut novel. Begin in the middle, and cross our fingers in the hopes that one of these times you’ll make it through all the way through to the end.

Cover photo by K putt via Flickr

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