Try! Even if It Might Not Work Out

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My guest this week is Sheila Webster Boneham, author of several nonfiction books and the first in her mystery series, Drop Dead on Recall.

"I want to write a [novel, memoir, poem, book about...]...." I hear that a lot. I hear it when I teach classes and workshops, and I hear it in coffee shops and at book signings. I think this is partly because the need to create is a fundamental human drive. Have you ever met a healthy child who wasn’t eager to learn and make and do things? I also believe that the creative urge plays out in more ways than we usually think of as "creative" – writing, visual arts, dance, music, and so on. Take dog training.

My new Animals in Focus Mystery series begins with murder at a canine obedience trial in Drop Dead on Recall. For more than a decade I taught obedience classes, mostly to pet owners who wanted to gain some control of their dogs. Many did fine, and emerged at the end of the class with better skills for communicating with their dogs. Some were inspired to continue training, and a few of those eventually went on to compete. At each step up that ladder from "my dog is dragging me down the street" to "my dog just earned an obedience title!" there were dropouts, because I’m here to tell you that as easy as it looks when you see a well-oiled dog-and-owner team perform, it took them a lot of hard work to get there.

So it goes with writing. Many people begin with an urge to write. Some have a specific project in mind, but others just feel they’d like to try writing and find their subject as they go. They take a class or two, or join a writers’ group, or go to a conference. It’s fun at first. Then the fun becomes more complicated. Painful. Not all criticism is "constructive," and even when it is, it’s hard to hear.

When the work is ready to submit to agents or publishers, things get tougher. Rejection is part of the deal, and rejection sucks. So like the doggy-school dropouts who don’t want to spend time teaching the things their dogs don’t learn quickly, a lot of beginning and intermediate writers drop out when the pleasures of writing bump up against disappointments and plain old hard work. And it takes a lot of hard work to be good, much less great (at writing, at anything). Many people quit when this becomes evident.

I’ve heard people say that quitting is sad, but I'm not sure it is. I think we should try something new every so often, even if it doesn’t work out. If you think you want to write, give it a whirl! Even if you’re never published, you will have expanded your view, had some fun, learned something. You might even turn out to be a writer! How will you ever know if you don’t try?

As for the quitting, I think that’s okay too. Because quitting doesn’t mean failure. It means we have successfully identified our lack of interest or skill in a particular activity. It means we can move on to try something else, or we can go back to what we already know and love. It means we tried. And that is success!

ABOUT SHEILA

Award-winning author Sheila Webster Boneham writes fiction and nonfiction, much of it focused on animals, nature, and travel. Although best know for her writing about dogs and cats for the past fifteen years, Sheila also writes fiction, narrative nonfiction, and poetry. Her new Animals in Focus mystery series has just debuted with Drop Dead on Recall, now available from your local bookseller and online. In addition to her next mystery, Sheila is currently working on a series of essays about traveling the U.S. by train, and on a combination memoir and wide-ranging meditation on the human-canine connection. Sheila teaches writing workshops and classes, and is interested in speaking to groups about writing, creativity, and related topics. She lives in Wilmington, NC, and can be found online at http://www.sheilaboneham.com or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sheilawrites, or find her at Twitter @sheilaboneham.

ABOUT Drop Dead on Recall

When a top-ranked competitor keels over at a dog obedience trial, photographer Janet MacPhail is swept up in a maelstrom of suspicion, jealousy, cut-throat competition, death threats, pet-napping, and murder. She becomes a “person of interest” to the police, and apparently to major hunk Tom Saunders as well. As if murder and the threat of impending romance aren’t enough to drive her bonkers, Janet has to move her mother into a nursing home, and the old lady isn’t going quietly. Janet finds solace in her Australian Shepherd, Jay, her tabby cat, Leo, and her eccentric neighbor, Goldie Sunshine. Then two other “persons of interest” die, Jay’s life is threatened, Leo disappears, and Janet’s search for the truth threatens to leave her own life underdeveloped – for good.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0738733067 paperback

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0096DKGGA Kindle