One of my favorite quotations is from a book called The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
“There is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it’s because that desire originated in the soul of the universe.”
I really really want to write, and I’m starting to feel like it might just be what I was meant to do.
It’s funny to me how much things have changed since I switched my major in December. That was the first time that I told myself that I wanted to write for a living and that I could do it. Before then, I’d always thought I wasn’t good enough to write professionally. Now I’m starting to understand that I can use my passion to make myself good at it.
If you’ve read my blog before, you know that one of my New Year’s resolutions was to enter a contest or send something to a publisher/agent every month. Today, after four long months of hard work, I got two signs that I’m headed in the right direction.
First, I got an email from a publisher I’ve been speaking to. He requested my full manuscript about a month ago, and today he told me that even though he didn’t think it was something he was interested in (for various reasons), he enjoyed my writing style and thought the manuscript was nicely edited. This is going to sound stupid, but the fact that someone would say that something I edited in about two days was “nicely edited” makes me feel a little better about my writing. Maybe I kinda know what I’m doing.
At the beginning of March, I entered a student literary contest that my school hosted. Today was the awards ceremony, where they told us who the winners were, and let me go ahead and say that I was not one of them. Not that I expected to be–but I hoped a little. Anyway, the fiction contest was judged by a published author (her name is Amanda Ward if you want to check out some of her stories), and she commented on all of the winners’ stories. She also singled out my story and said that it was a cool concept! I could not stop smiling. I also got a cookie.
Today was a good day.
Also, it’s possible that I may be posting some of my stories (most likely random things I’ve written) here soon. Maybe.