Solitaire and Spider Solitaire - Trying Again by Debra H. Goldstein

Solitaire and Spider Solitaire – Trying Again by Debra H. Goldstein

Most of you know that I reward myself for getting words on the page by playing solitaire, spider solitaire and FreeCell.  You also know, I procrastinate when the words aren’t coming by playing solitaire, spider solitaire and FreeCell.  In the past, I played on game and if it didn’t work out, I’d play a new version of the same game. Recently, I’ve started hitting “Try Again” instead of “New Game.”

“Try Again” brings up the game I just lost. The challenge for me is to see if there is a different choice I can make that results in the game working out.  Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. When the “Try Again” is successful, two thoughts go through my head: “Yes, I did it!” and “Why was I so stupid before not to have seen how I should have played this?”

When I think about the evolution of my writing, I realize it is following the same path as my game playing. In the old days, a rejection meant I’d hide the piece away. Now, I examine every aspect of what I submitted. Was there a better way I could phrase something? Did I rush the story? Did I leave a word out? Should I leave words or paragraphs out? Almost every time, I revise and improve the piece. Often, the result, when I try to place it again is success.  If it is rejected again, I repeat the process. Although some pieces are too weird or not quite complete enough for a publisher to want them, most eventually find a home.  My reaction then is very simple: “Yes, I did it!”

If one is to survive as a writer, one’s skin must be toughened so that rejections become tools of learning rather than badges of shame. My heart can still be pierced, but I’m beginning to like the process enough to play less card games. What about you?

When Did You Start Writing?

Authors are asked that question many times during their writing careers. Of course there are variations on that them, like when did you first know you wanted to be a writer? Or when did you first get published?

I'm going to answer the first question. When I first started writing, I didn't know how to write. What I mean is I didn't know how to make letters and certain not words or sentences, but I did tell stories.

My mother listened to soap operas in the morning while she did her chores--and I listened to. My favorite was "My Gal Sunday" about a young woman in a little mining town in Colorado. I drew pictures telling my own version of that story. That memory is very vivid. I had my own little table and chair in our breakfast alcove and that's where I "wrote" my stories.

When I did learn how to read and write, I moved on to other writing.

I was captivated by all the Little House on the Prairie books and when I'd read them all, I wrote my own--in long hand and in pencil.

It wasn't too long before I'd branched out to tales that came from my imagination. I know that I did send stories into Jack and Jill magazine. And I wrote a children's book about a fairy complete with illustrations that I sent into a publisher. Received my first rejection--and as I remember, it was nice encouraging me to keep writing.

During the summer when I was still in grammar school, I wrote plays and gathered up all the neighborhood children to perform in them. Looking back, I bet a lot of mothers were happy I kept their children occupied. We performed in my back yard where my dad rigged up curtains so we'd have a real stage. Though I don't remember what any of the plays were about, I know we always had a big audience. (All those mothers, I suppose and the siblings too young to act.)

By junior high, I was writing and publishing my own teen magazine with articles and stories I wrote and illustrated myself.

In high school, I mostly wrote in my diary. When I fell in love with my husband, and my life became interesting, I no longer kept up the diary.

Married and with five children, my writing was confined to newsletters for PTA and plays for my Camp Fire Girls to perform. I did write another book that I sent off, but it was rejected too and I decided that maybe I didn't have what it takes to be a writer. But it wasn't too long before I was writing again, receiving rejections, but not giving up.

And the rest is history. I am not a big name writer by any means and don't make a lot of money, but I am doing what I love and isn't that really all that counts?

Over 35 published books later.

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith