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| Spring Pollen Reflection Spring 2014 Outside Raleighwood |
My favorite part from her piece is this:
"my journey toward publication has barely started and i’ve already done everything wrong. i wrote my manuscripts wrong. i edited wrong. i queried wrong. i waited wrong. i made every possible mistake but i was committed to never giving up. i discovered that mistakes are okay when you learn from them, and bad manuscripts are just fine if you learn to laugh at them later. i knew that if the first book didn’t work i would write a second one. and if the second one didn’t work i would write a third. nothing was a waste of time. not the fourth book, not the fifth or the sixth. not the time i addressed a male agent by a woman’s name, not the times i thought “editing” meant “looking for typos”, and certainly not the hours i spent hunched over my computer with imaginary friends and places painting my world into something i never knew i could see.
i discovered:
- my first novel taught me how to write.
- my second novel taught me how to edit.
- my third novel taught me how to write elegantly.
- my fourth novel taught me how to write commercially.
- my fifth novel taught me how to combine all four.
- my sixth novel taught me how to write a book."
I'm still hoping one day I'll be able to laugh at all of my mistakes.
And feel like I've learned how to write a book.
-- Tom
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* Tahereh is also married to Ransom Riggs, author of "Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children"(the book I gave away for this year's World Book Night) and its sequel, "Hollow City".
