Publish or Perish

Good morning blog world! There's a question I've learned to ask myself before I present my writing work. Do I stand behind it? Early on in the freelance world, I was all ambition and talent. Problem was, that talent wasn't polished. Unfortunately, ambition drove me past it.

I have work for sale that I don't promote. Why? I haven't went back and polished it. It's raw, it's structurally ignorant. It wasn't ready. I didn't have a writing coach yet. Hadn't been to one writing seminar. I didn't understand POV, climax, the struggle, etc. The equation of writing success.

I could go on the web and erase my tracks, but why? Because I'm embarrassed of my amateur work? Nah. That's stupid. Those tracks are proof I was there. I was once ambitious enough to get past my fears and insecurities in writing. It serves as a reminder of what not to do. Or....drum roll please....what TO do. "Huh?" She asked scratching her head.

Yeah, what TO do. We can't forget to run the ball! We can obsessively scrutinize our work hiding behind a computer monitor and keep finding reasons not to pursue publish. Or...wait for it...we can do what I set out to do in the beginning, PUBLISH OR PERISH.

When my freelance career took off (see my bio pic from 2004 below), I bought a journal from a chain bookstore that had those words on it because they lit the fire in me. There was no room for fear or disbelief. I was in my corner even if no one else was. Eventually they filed behind me and beside me and I was oozing with supporitve publishers and artisans.

Thanks to this blog, I'm finding that again. Self belief and love. I'm in my corner 'til death do us part. PUBLISH OR PERISH!