SUCCESSFUL WRITERS

"There are so many different kinds of writing and so many ways to work that the only rule is this: do what works. Almost everything has been tried and found to succeed for somebody. The methods, even the ideas of successful writers contradict each other in a most heartening way, and the only element I find common to all successful writers is persistence -- an overwhelming determination to succeed."
Sophy Burnham, For Writers Only

This quote certainly summed things up for me today. Friends at Writers Abroad will know just what I'm talking about having battled over the last few weeks writing a piece for our anthology. And if there is one thing I know for certain WA members are nothing if not determined. We all have our own crosses to bear in a number of ways not just the battle with writing. Like our characters, we live ordinary lives off the page - we are all someone else as well as a 'writer'. So life gets in the way and we get knocked back but never do we stay down. With a little help from our 'friends' we pick ourselves up, brush ourselves down and keep on wheedling away at our projects and providing feedback to others. And to date we have got some great, diverse, professionally written pieces of fiction which will make our anthology of short stories shine! I'm hoping that this determined approach will rub off on me as I battle with my multiple novels in editing-progress, or as I'm more inclined to refer to them now - re-writes in progress!