Today’s video can be seen as a visual metaphor of the writing and publishing experience.
Can you tell me what is being represented?
Fun Fridays – November 10, 2017
The Steve Laube Agency
Helping to Change the World…Word by Word
The Steve Laube Agency
Helping to Change the World Word by Word
Beyond the Hook: Character Flaws?
This was me at ACFW when you told me how terrible my manuscript’s title was 🙂 “What do you mean ‘Romance readers won’t read a novel with Monsters in the title’?” 🙂
Someone needs to pair this with the song Tubthumping though! “I get knocked down, but I get up again…”
That’s exactly what I was going to write 🙂
Newby writers constantly knocked down by acquisition editors for whatever reason, only they keep striving, struggling, and reaching for the top–manuscript acceptance!
Always strive to reach the top even if you get knocked down a few times on the way there. The end result is worth it.
I relate this to the learning process of writing and building a platform. Three steps forward and two back.
This is can be an example of writers and agents submitting manuscripts and being rejected.
Looks like the squirrels on my birdfeeder after I ask them (politely) to get off.
Keep going and eventually you’ll make it. Don’t worry about keeping up with others. Go at your own pace. Be patient. And even when you make it, you may still fall. Get back up. Don’t quit. Quitting is easy (the stairs leading down). Do the work, keep striving, persevere. And one day you’ll be standing with your arms outstretched praising God for all He’s brought you through.
I thought of the constant cycle of book launches (anyone else feel like watching this for more than 2 minutes would give them an aneurysm?) and going up and down the staircase representing your perceived level of “success”–constantly shifting, going up and down. I’d maybe title this. . . “The Flight of the Mid-List Authors.”
What about “Plight” instead of “Flight”? !!!
This one is fun to watch several times, Steve.
Even the one who stayed to the end didn’t quite make it to the top, but he was still trying. Laws of physics put each faller who did get back on in a standing position at a lower step than where they fell, so any mistake means they must lose ground and then work to regain it. Moral: keep trying and stop making mistakes if you want to stand at the top.
This has nothing to do with writing or publishing. This is me trying to keep my house clean with four kids.
Okay Katie, you made me laugh out loud with that one!
This is a further loop on Maurice Ecsher’s Stairs.
I thought of the physical stamina of the trampoline artists.
Interpretation:
The seemingly endless supply of wannabe authors and the rarity of one of them reaching the “top”.
When one finally does (only one of the four) it is only briefly. The depletion of their numbers isn’t necessarily from quitting, some die for various reasons including old age.
One metaphor being represented regarding the writing and publishing industry is found in Matt 22:14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
Bonus: If this sounds correct to you for the rest of the day I will answer to the name “Belteshazzar” in the event that anyone asks “what’s your name”.
Rejections, rejections. And even published books go out of print eventually.most
You win some, you lose some, but you always need to get right back up….but that doesn’t explain the one man left standing…..
It looks to me like the majority choose another path. It isn’t necessarily that they have failed to “reach the top.” They choose to take another route, be that an easier route, the wrong route, or whatever. They aren’t walking down the stairs in any sort of dejection given their body language, they just go another way. I suppose it could be interpreted as they are all striving for “heaven,” but getting there (or staying the race) is too difficult, so most of them stop trying. The final person continues to strive even though he will never achieve perfection. Perhaps the journey is enough. Perhaps the journey for us, as writers, is ultimately more character-building than arriving at the destination. Further, if we stop at that perceived destination and think we’ve arrived, we are fooling ourselves. If we stop trying, stop learning, stop falling and getting back up again, we will never be all that we are intended to be.
This is why one should avoid an all grey wardrobe.
There are a lot of ups and downs and no one ever makes it to the top.
Striving to be the king of the mountain may not be nearly as much fun as playing on a trampoline–falling in certain postures, e.g. Persistence, taken terribly seriously, can be rewarded but it can also be a killjoy. So enjoy the trip.
Escher!! And wow does it ring a bell in the writing business.