"The further you get away from yourself, the more challenging it is. Not to be in your comfort zone is great fun." Benedict Cumberbatch
That's my main writer's goal for 2020: to step out of my comfort zone.
If you're a writer you might be thinking, I'm always outside of my comfort zone. Being a writer is not an easy path to tread. Obviously, you'd be correct. We are all on a long lonely road; hopefully the journey is exciting. What I'm referring to is changing the way I've approached my career. It's time to make choices that previously I've avoided.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Anonymous
Next month will mark the twelfth year since I began writing full time. In that time I've had so many extraordinary experiences - some positive and some negative. However, they have all provided me with much needed knowledge and wisdom. That being said, early on, like most writers, I received numerous rejections. Thereafter I discovered a crazy way to minimize the pain:
Submit my manuscript only on rare occasions, and with a ridiculous hope, expect agent representation to come my way. Seriously, that's what I've done for several years now. According to my records I've only queried twelve agents in the last eight years. Confessing that fact here on my blog is one of the ways I'm leaving my comfort zone this year.
I'm well aware of the familiar advice to query several times a month. I just couldn't take the pain. However, since self-publishing my books I've received so much positive feedback, that I believe I'm finally ready to jump back in the fire and begin submitting my MG novel on a monthly basis. That doesn't mean I won't be bothered by rejections; it means that I'm now confident enough to receive rejection and not take it personally. It turns out that publishing my own books was beneficial to my growth as an author. I love the control I have over our series of Lindstrom Wintertime Tales. However, I've always felt I'd like to be a "hybrid author," and it's now time to move forward with my MG novel.
It's time to step out of my comfort zone and begin querying again.
Are there ways you can grow this year by leaving your comfort zone?
