For Americans, today is election day. Rest assured, this is not a political post. Instead, I'd like to focus on the wonderful reality of choice.
My family lives in a small, rural town, and our son is a sophomore in the local high school. There are only about 110 students in his class, and over 400 teens in the entire school. Some parents have chosen to pull their kids from our small school and enroll their kids in large high schools in neighboring cities. We chose to leave our son in his small school close to home. He's doing great there, and he loves it. For us, an easy choice.
As writers, sometimes our choices are not so clear...
Publishing Choices
Do we go the agent/big publisher route? Do we go the small publisher route? Do we leap over the gatekeepers and take the self-publishing route?
I don't know about you, but I'm glad the traditional vs. indie battle has died down a bit. There are plenty of successful authors on both sides, and lots of authors who choose an all-of-the-above approach.
Me, I'm just thankful for the choice.
Artistic Choices
Setting? First person? Third person? Past tense? Present tense? Light and flirty mood? Dark and chilling? Who's the narrator?
A slight shift in any of these questions alters the story completely. I sometimes struggle with these choices because I want to make the right decisions up front.
But again, I'm thankful for the choice.
The Choice to Persevere
I don't know about you, but sometimes rejections or bad news is like a sucker punch that makes me doubt everything. If you've ever wondered why in the heck you continue to do something that brings such joy, but also such heartache, believe me, I know how you feel.
Thankfully, we don't allow those moments to last very long. After a bit of time, we come back. And if we choose to, we use those disappointments to fuel our desire to become better. No one holds a Nerf gun to our heads and forces us to create and polish and lay our hearts bare. Perseverance is a choice.
Whether it's leadership, publishing, artistic choices, or the decision to persevere, it's a beautiful thing to have a choice.
Are you intimidated by the amount of choices available to writers today? Do you regret any of the choices you've made as a writer? What's the best writing related choice you've made so far?