Let’s Pretend

Progress Update: Zero. I just couldn’t face it yesterday

When I was a kid, I used pretend like I was Princess Leia, fighting for the Rebellion with my awesome boyfriend, Han, at my side. Then I used to pretend I was Indy’s girl and I would go on globe-trotting adventures with him and get into all sorts of mishaps.

At the elementary school playground, all the structures were wooden and there was this wooden bridge. My best friend and I used to act out the scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where Indy cuts the bridge in half and Willie screams her head off. And then they all slam against the rock wall and Indy is at the bottom and he’s trying to climb back up to the top with the stones. You remember that scene, I’m sure. 😉 So we’d play “Temple of Doom” and even sing the Anything Goessong in Chinese (we knew ALL the words and the dance steps) and the playground was our Indy adventureland.

Ahh…those were the days.

Some people are lucky enough to pretend for a living — they became actors and actresses and get to live out adventures on a movie set. Others of us, we pretend in our heads and write down all our adventures. Others who didn’t turn to acting or writing and continued to pretend…we’ll, I’m pretty sure they ended up in the loony bin somewhere. 

But are writers really so different?  Trying to get published is a long, tedious, painful, awful process. But we do it anyway. Every time we get a rejection, we go back for more like a glutton for punishment. You know why? Cuz we ARE nuts. And we believe in ourselves. We keep writing and trying. We push ourselves to the edge, write the stories WE want to write, make worlds WE want to live in. We write and write and try and try until ONE day, one special day, we get that call or email from the person who said yes.

I got the 15th no yesterday. Am I giving up? Hell, no. Will I continue the rocky roller coaster ride? Hell, yes.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some make-believe to tend to.

Happy weekend!