This writing business can sometimes be like rock climbing. When you’re standing at the bottom, the goal way up at the top can look pretty intimidating.

But you’re excited and you stare at the obstacles in your way (those seasoned authors), and instead you see all the hand and footholds and stair-stepping opportunities (conferences, making connections, writing classes) to help you make your way upward–to reach that “golden…er…silver” (as the case may be) ring at the top.

It’s not always an easy, straightforward path…instead it zigzags back and forth, taxing strength you didn’t know you had. As you strain to make your way further up, you may find you have to lower yourself back down to the ledge below (you write in a new genre or start a new series or change your pen name) so you can step back and strategize as to the best path to get you to your ultimate goal (New York Times list, Selling Movie Rights, that “significant or major deal” in Publisher’s Marketplace. *g*).

Then you start forward again, positioning yourself using different leverage points, hoping you’ve hit the right path. Aah, but sometimes the hand or foothold you thought was secure, shifts slightly on you, sending you sideways, fearful you’ll fall. Your heart races, and your body siezes in a panic, while you tighten your hold on the other leverage points you were just about to release. You take a deep breath and realize…that no matter how secure the next step seems there are never any guarantees. So, all you can do is look forward, reposition your feet, grab another ‘hold’, and hope and pray this one is secure. Once you’ve got it, DIG your fingers in and don’t let go!

Unlike rock climbing, for many writers…most often the goal (the ring at the top) changes, and the ring suddenly becomes a nice peak but it’s just a resting point for the next step in your upward climb. But at least by this point, you’ve figured out how to pause, how to look ahead and how to ‘test’ that next hold for sturdiness without putting all your weight behind it like you did in the past. You’re now…more seasoned in your approach. With writing…that’s half the battle.