I wanted to finish a short story to submit to a market by the end of July.
I didn’t manage it. I tried, I got several thousand words into several different drafts, but at the end of the day (yesterday, in fact) I didn’t have a finished story to submit, and that’s a failure.
I can cushion it with all sorts of softer language: it was a learning experience, I learned a lot, It wasn’t meant to be, it was an extremely stressful month, and so on, and so forth. But the simple truth is that I wanted to do a thing, and I wasn’t able to do it.
That’s okay. Failure is just part of the job. Not everything I write is going to light the world on fire… heck, if anything I write gets widespread acceptance or readership I will be very, very pleasantly surprised. I have humble wishes when it comes to my writing… a small community just big enough to support my work, really.
But it is equally important to know when I stumble, to learn from it, and to take steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Was there anything I could do to help me finish that story? Is there something I can do now to help me finish the next one?
And so forth.
The secret to success I’m told isn’t to never make a mistake. It’s to do your best to not make the same mistake twice.
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!