A Writer’s ‘If…’ (with apologies to Rudyard Kipling)
Posted: September 13th, 2012, 11:27 am
A Writer’s ‘If…’
(with apologies to Rudyard Kipling)
If you can free yourself from all distraction,
continue learning, while you pay your dues.
If you can work with dialogue and action
(and trust the one who calls herself your muse).
If you can sit for hours at the keyboard,
with little thought of fame or future wage,
yet pour your very heart and soul to paper
(then add more tension into every page).
If you can keep away from social media,
at least until you’ve typed a page or two,
nor put all trust in Ask or Wikipedia
(not every ‘fact’ you see on there is true).
If you can save your readers from confusion,
give your players widely different names,
confront your writer’s pride and self-delusion,
and treat those two imposters with disdain.
If you can learn to master exposition,
resist the urge to chase the latest trend,
follow every guideline for submission,
yet still do one last check before you ‘send’.
If you can bear to hear a critic’s judgment,
when someone tells you, ‘This is utter crap!’
and learn to take critique without begrudgment
(don’t let yourself fall into that old trap).
If you can learn to bounce back from rejection,
to recognize that spell-check’s not enough,
then plough on through your sorrow and dejection,
even when the going seems too rough.
If you can prove yourself a worthy fighter,
and keep on typing till you reach ‘The End’,
you’ll earn the right to claim ‘I are a writer!’
and —which is more— you’ll have a book, my friend.
(with apologies to Rudyard Kipling)
If you can free yourself from all distraction,
continue learning, while you pay your dues.
If you can work with dialogue and action
(and trust the one who calls herself your muse).
If you can sit for hours at the keyboard,
with little thought of fame or future wage,
yet pour your very heart and soul to paper
(then add more tension into every page).
If you can keep away from social media,
at least until you’ve typed a page or two,
nor put all trust in Ask or Wikipedia
(not every ‘fact’ you see on there is true).
If you can save your readers from confusion,
give your players widely different names,
confront your writer’s pride and self-delusion,
and treat those two imposters with disdain.
If you can learn to master exposition,
resist the urge to chase the latest trend,
follow every guideline for submission,
yet still do one last check before you ‘send’.
If you can bear to hear a critic’s judgment,
when someone tells you, ‘This is utter crap!’
and learn to take critique without begrudgment
(don’t let yourself fall into that old trap).
If you can learn to bounce back from rejection,
to recognize that spell-check’s not enough,
then plough on through your sorrow and dejection,
even when the going seems too rough.
If you can prove yourself a worthy fighter,
and keep on typing till you reach ‘The End’,
you’ll earn the right to claim ‘I are a writer!’
and —which is more— you’ll have a book, my friend.
