. The one thing I didn't mention there was how I felt the book related to my own.This whole Sacred Knight project has been my passion for such a long time. Godin talks about how you've got to try out ideas and you'll probably fail most of the time. But if you don't poke the box, you'll never find out what will happen.
Seventeen years I've spent with my characters, mainly my hero. Multiple drafts I've tried, restarted, written bits and filed them away, tried, failed, wrote more, failed, kept writing, failed, etc. But each time I learned more. I made a few mistakes, but I learned a lot about the story. How could I have grown it if I hadn't kept trying? There were times when I wanted to throw my large storage box of notes off the Perrine Bridge just to hear it splash in the Snake River. Or how about a barbecue in the back yard -- you going to bring the marshmallows?
When you're creating a fantasy world, you're making up everything: religion, culture, speech patterns, fashion, food, history, atmosphere, animals, plants, architecture, everything. It's not a small task. You've got to experiment. It's nothing but poking the box until you find what works.
To stay at such a project, it's got to be a passion. If it's not, it's allowed to fade away. So yes, this story is my passion. When you're reading it, you're seeing the collection of many failures until I had enough faith in it to let it be a success. Is it perfect? No, it's not. But I'm not referring to success here as meaning that it's perfect. Yes, I've already thought of lines I wish I'd been able to put in the book. Oh well, the book lives on and so do it. It is a success because I've put it out there and it speaks my message.
One other point that Godin makes is that too many authors are waiting for someone else to approve them. First they have to get an agent to take them on, then a publisher. He goes on to talk about an event coordinator who would be better off being a promoter -- saying that as an event coordinator, this person is at the mercy of the promoter who holds all the power, so why not move from being an event coordinator to being a promoter? I wish he'd carried through with analogy and just said what I know he wanted to say: why doesn't the author quit waiting for permission from the publisher and just become the publisher. In this day and age, it is easy to jump into being the person in power. It's a matter of remembering that you can do it, then doing it. I can understand why people don't do it too. It took a lot of effort to put together a book, especially carrying all the jobs from writing to editing to cover design. But if it fails at market, I have no one to blame by myself.
Want to know a secret? It can't fail.
My passion is in the story, in releasing it to the world for others to read
. Guess what? That's already done. Well, book 1 of 4 is done. Book one is a success, and I'm committed now to finishing books 2-4. Each book will further that success to my commitment to this story. It's a cycle. Passion, commitment, success. Where are you at with your story? Are you letting your passion fuel it even over hardships. Notice I didn't even mention failure in the above formula. Failures are temporary. When we're learning to walk, we fall down a few times. Being able to walk from one room to another keeps a baby trying. Seeing a published book on the shelf should fuel you to get your own done no matter what it takes. Don't wait for anyone else's approval. Do it.
