You have finished the race indeed! So happy and excited for you and can’t wait to read my copy ❤️Thank you so much for all that you do for aspiring writers like me. You are awesome Henriette, congratulations again!
Henriette, this is a great post ! I think lots of people would like to read it who aspire to publish their work, or publish a second time, because you're sharing a personal understanding of what that experience can feel like. It sounds like it's different from what you might have expected, and challenging in interesting ways.
Thinking about your question,"why we sometimes struggle to accept success," of course some of it may be due to your individual wiring, and some may stem from the nerve-wracking enterprise of writing, But I think it also fits particularly with the mind of an athlete. After each triumph, don't athletes often seek out new and challenging situations? In that sense, each victory is seldom "enough," even though getting there is everything, right?
The story of how your journey of persistence and faith to attain this triumph is a great one, and this is an important moment in that story. You are generous to share it with readers. And in the end, I suspect there's a good chance the anxiety will turn out to be part of your hyper-efficient healthy process of "getting the accumulated pressure out of your system ahead of time," before Dec. 6th when your book is released into the universe. As that day dawns, I'm betting your adrenaline will make a U-turn, stop working against you, and kick in to carry you forward and help you soar. Wishing you a great, wonderful first night at the Harvard Book Store!
Melissa, that's a good point--that even the athlete who achieves a goal can sometimes look right past it without much satisfaction (or lasting satisfaction) and push towards the next goal. In sports, that hasn't been quite my experience because I generally -am- able to claim my successes there (or, as part of a team, when that's applicable). But we shall see :-)
Congratulations on imagining and writing and revising and completing and launching (any day now) Terra Nova!!! I found for my one book that the launch and all that comes with it was thrilling--but my pride and happiness was also easily punctured by an audience member not getting the book's premise or my feeling that it didn't get as much press as I'd hoped. And then I'd be bolstered by a young person every now and then emailing me to let me know how much it meant to them. Up and down, up and down--and I suppose that's probably exactly as it should be.
Yes, I want to be immune to that up and down that comes from external elements. I really do believe (and have now reminded myself) that you can only produce the best book you're capable of, and the rest can't be worrisome. There are bound to be negative critiques. And that's going to be ok!
The most ridiculous negative critiques authors receive on Amazon is that the package for the book they ordered arrived crushed. Do they not understand that that's not the author's fault and now the 1 star they gave them brings their overall rating way down?! I'm lucky I didn't experience that--and I hope you don't either. Gah!
You have finished the race indeed! So happy and excited for you and can’t wait to read my copy ❤️Thank you so much for all that you do for aspiring writers like me. You are awesome Henriette, congratulations again!
Thanks, Patti!
Henriette, this is a great post ! I think lots of people would like to read it who aspire to publish their work, or publish a second time, because you're sharing a personal understanding of what that experience can feel like. It sounds like it's different from what you might have expected, and challenging in interesting ways.
Thinking about your question,"why we sometimes struggle to accept success," of course some of it may be due to your individual wiring, and some may stem from the nerve-wracking enterprise of writing, But I think it also fits particularly with the mind of an athlete. After each triumph, don't athletes often seek out new and challenging situations? In that sense, each victory is seldom "enough," even though getting there is everything, right?
The story of how your journey of persistence and faith to attain this triumph is a great one, and this is an important moment in that story. You are generous to share it with readers. And in the end, I suspect there's a good chance the anxiety will turn out to be part of your hyper-efficient healthy process of "getting the accumulated pressure out of your system ahead of time," before Dec. 6th when your book is released into the universe. As that day dawns, I'm betting your adrenaline will make a U-turn, stop working against you, and kick in to carry you forward and help you soar. Wishing you a great, wonderful first night at the Harvard Book Store!
Melissa, that's a good point--that even the athlete who achieves a goal can sometimes look right past it without much satisfaction (or lasting satisfaction) and push towards the next goal. In sports, that hasn't been quite my experience because I generally -am- able to claim my successes there (or, as part of a team, when that's applicable). But we shall see :-)
Congratulations! You deserve the fist-bump and the beer!!! I look so forward to reading your brilliant book.
Thank you, Wendy!
Congratulations on imagining and writing and revising and completing and launching (any day now) Terra Nova!!! I found for my one book that the launch and all that comes with it was thrilling--but my pride and happiness was also easily punctured by an audience member not getting the book's premise or my feeling that it didn't get as much press as I'd hoped. And then I'd be bolstered by a young person every now and then emailing me to let me know how much it meant to them. Up and down, up and down--and I suppose that's probably exactly as it should be.
Yes, I want to be immune to that up and down that comes from external elements. I really do believe (and have now reminded myself) that you can only produce the best book you're capable of, and the rest can't be worrisome. There are bound to be negative critiques. And that's going to be ok!
The most ridiculous negative critiques authors receive on Amazon is that the package for the book they ordered arrived crushed. Do they not understand that that's not the author's fault and now the 1 star they gave them brings their overall rating way down?! I'm lucky I didn't experience that--and I hope you don't either. Gah!