"Holly Lisle - Mugging The Muse" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lisle Holly)

along the way you realize that you want to stretch your wings. Try something you
haven't tried before. You write this new thing, and your fans hate it because it's
different, and your editor takes a beating, and you publisher loses money, and all of a
sudden you're in a precarious position. You have to decide тАУ pursue the new course
and take chances, or stagnate in the old thing that has become popular and that is
starting to feel like a prison. Or find some third writing course.
All along the way, you've had to face the certainty of various sorts of failure. You've
been embarrassed by your family, who does not understand why you must do this
ridiculous thing. You've felt pain and rejection and worthlessness. You've had your
soul and your talent and your hope stepped on, and you've cried your share of private
tears, and you've kept up a brave face in public more than you'll ever admit. Even
when you succeed by your own definition of success, whatever that might be, you
will continue to struggle, and you will never leave the struggle behind. Every story
and every book is another chance to fail just exactly as much as it is another chance
to succeed. Every new level of success raises the bar higher, making failure more
public and more painful ... and more likely. Every day is a challenge, and every day
requires courage.
I've learned this about writing тАУ if you will not put yourself in a position to fail, you
cannot succeed. The two are as inseparably linked as breathing in is linked to
breathing out. You cannot have success without failure, though you can live a safe
life and have neither.
Courage is standing at the bottom of the mountain, knowing that the climb is going to
hurt like hell and that you might never reach the top, and climbing anyway. Courage
is saying тАЬOne more step. Just one more step,тАЭ when hands and knees and heart are
bleeding. Courage is saying that you might let yourself quit tomorrow, but that you're
going to hang in today, just for now... and not telling your tired, hurting self that the
next day is always today, and the next moment is always now.
What about my climb? I've done my share of falling, and I have the scars to show for
it. It seems like there's as much mountain above me as there ever was, though when I
HOLLY LISLE
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MUGGING THE MUSE: WRITING FICTION FOR LOVE AND MONEY

look back, I can see that I've covered a surprising amount of ground, every bit of it
one step at a time. I still don't know what the view from the top is like. I do know
what the view from the first ledge above the treeline is like, though, and it's been
worth the climb so far. I'm still working my way up the mountain, because what you
can see from up here is nothing you can even get pictures of down in the valley where
it's safe. Part of the beauty of this place, I think, comes from having survived the
pain. Part of the elation, too. If the climb were easy, it wouldn't be any fun.
This is the world of writing, and it is the only world of writing. Every writer climbs
the same mountain, though we all climb it by our own path. You can make this
climb. It takes courage, but it only takes the sort of courage everybody can have тАУ
the courage not to quit when quitting would be the easy thing to do. You will not be
called on to perform heroic deeds тАУ to leap into burning buildings or lift cars or fling
yourself into the midst of a shark feeding frenzy to save a drowning child. All you
have to do is take one more step. Remember to keep your head up, brush the dirt off
your face and pick the gravel out of your palms when you fall, and know that every
other person who climbed the mountain has done the same thing.
Good luck in your climb. My wish for you is this: May you have the courage to fail,