• Mary Ellen Stepanich, PhD
  • Home
  • Bio
  • Book
  • Blog
  • Media

26 Mar

Cook a Book With These Ingredients for Success

mestepanich Mary Ellen Stepanich, PhD 9 0

I belong to several different writers’ groups. Some people might think I suffer from a form of overkill. But I believe each group offers a different perspective on the writing life, and that I can benefit from them all as I seek to achieve my dream of SUCCESS as an author.

One group is made up of seven women, “girls who just wanna have fun.” We have been collectively writing a novel, one chapter at a time, one writer at a time … for three long years! The challenge is to create a plot that makes sense because it threatens to leave the main road and shoot off in uncharted territory with each new author. The problem? There is no PLAN. Why? Because the members thought that planning would detract from the enjoyment of simply going with the flow and seeing what comes out. As you may guess, what has “come out” is like the soufflé in the movie, Sabrina: Too flat, too uneven, and considerably underdone.

Another group of which I am a member is the Phoenix Publishing and Book Promotion meet-up group. I joined them because I thought they could help me to reach my GOAL of becoming a published author. As I gained confidence in my ability to write, it became increasingly clear that I had no knowledge of how to achieve my secret AMBITION––to become recognized by readers by effectively marketing my work.

This group has helped me to get a step closer to turning my DREAM into a reality. But I fear that I am not DOING enough to make that happen. Life is always getting in the way.
Writing Reminder
The leader of the group, Laura Orsini, recently posted the above reminder by Bryant McGill on our Facebook page. It summed up perfectly what I have been struggling with for the past five years, perhaps (truth be told) my entire life: THINKING and PLANNING and DREAMING have always taken precedence over actual DOING, primarily because I––like many people, I surmise––have an inordinate FEAR OF FAILURE.

To write a short story or a novel, then to send it to a magazine or a publisher or an agent, seems like an exercise in futility, because all the experienced writers tell me that I have about a point-zero-zero-zero-one (or less) chance of success. And frankly, I don’t have enough years of life left to accomplish that. My writer friends say that self-publishing is the only route to take to get one’s work in front of potential readers. Of course, they also tell me that they rarely, if ever, earn back the expense of self-publishing their books.

To paraphrase the late Richard Nixon, I always say, “I am not a COOK!” But I can create a PRODUCT (a piece of writing), a GOAL (a written quantifiable objective), and a PLAN (a to-do list complete with target dates). Now, all that remains is to DO it, and SUCCESS will follow.


Facebook

9 Responses to Cook a Book With These Ingredients for Success

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Recent Posts

  • How To Communicate With Friends (and avoid making enemies)
  • December the 25th
  • The Relative Size of Frogs and Ponds
  • Actors, Dancers, Singers, or Writers?
  • I Can See Clearly Now…Darn It!

Recent Comments

  • check that on Guerrilla Tactics in a Small War (or How to Have a Successful Book Launch)
  • stopmotion on Guerrilla Tactics in a Small War (or How to Have a Successful Book Launch)
  • mini notebook wallet on How To Communicate With Friends (and avoid making enemies)
  • Parbrize MAZDA XEDOS 9 TA 2001 on Guerrilla Tactics in a Small War (or How to Have a Successful Book Launch)
  • Parbrize HUMMER H1 1995 on Guerrilla Tactics in a Small War (or How to Have a Successful Book Launch)

Archives

  • February 2018
  • December 2017
  • July 2017
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • July 2015
  • April 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • August 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • July 2013

Categories

  • Mary Ellen Stepanich, PhD


  • Home
  • Bio
  • Book
  • Blog
  • Media

Copyright © 2013. Mary Ellen Stepanich, PhD. All rights reserved.