Encouraging . . .
So many months back I made a list of the top 10 things I wanted to accomplish in life. Two of those things were "Write a novel" and "Have said Novel Published". This is a HUGE goal for me. I've always looked at authors as ivy league educated PhD's, etc. Yes, I know that's not at all true. I know there are some authors who just happened to write a book and get it published, etc. But one of my little niggling self doubts has to do with not having a college degree. Don't get me wrong, I've had a TON of education. Throughout my days at Boeing, all my MCSE classes gave me basically the equivalent of a B.S. in Information Technology. (Well at least when I was actually studying for a B.S. in IT, I knew more than the instructors) Obtaining my ABR, GRI and now my broker's license (will take the test this summer, I promise!) has given me an all together different kind of education. All of that mingled in with enough credits spread around between 3 different colleges to make me a Junior somewhere, and I've HAD an education. I just don't have the piece of paper to hang on the wall.So anyway, yesterday a friend pointed me to a blog of someone who is an author. This person just published a book. AND has a contract for THREE MORE through her publisher. She is MAKING A LIVING as an AUTHOR. And this is what I read in her blog:
"They would invite there friends over and all the kids would play and the parents would drink and play cards."
There - Over there, relating to location
Their - Shows posession (should have been used in this instance)
They're - Contraction of 'they are'
I won't even get into run on sentences because that's one of my biggest faults. We all make mistakes, but really this little sentence gave me a wee bit of hope that I too could be an author. It made me realize author's have editors. They don't need to have an english degree from Harvard to be successful. It goes back to the old saying: "Don't sweat the small stuff, and remember it's all small stuff". I tend to focus on details. I want to make sure EVERYTHING is perfect before I jump into something. It made me realize that the most important part of writing a book was actually the writing. It's not the grammar or spelling, it's simply the act of writing.
"You don't have to be great to start, but you do have to start to be great" - I think Zig Ziglar said that.
This is a concept that has been smacking me in the face lately. I've been too focused on getting everything JUST right that I don't start tasks at all. So it's time to just start.
As you know I write software for a living and one of the toughest skills to learn is to be comfortable releasing imperfect code. That is one reason a talented QA team is so important, as a software engineer you can be comfortable that the QA team will catch and report most of the flaws in your software. I'd assume it would be the same in an author/editor relationship. That the author can write with abandon, expressing the ideas and story all the while not obsessing over grammar and punctuation, knowing that their editor will make sure they don't confuse there, their and they're.