I Haven’t Had a Big Break, But I’ve Had a Lot of Little Breaks

Success can come in many different ways, and we should be mindful to celebrate every milestone

I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. When I was very young, I went on a quest to the mall to find a blank, hardcover journal. You see, I wanted to write a book. That was my aspiration even then. All I needed was something that looked like a book but was filled with empty pages.

In a very real sense, I was right. Filling in pages is all it takes.

Some people are referred to as “An overnight success 10 years in the making.” It’s been 50 years for me, but I’m not worried. I think too often writers become overly fixated on one make-or-break moment.

The true key to success lies in finding a way to persist. You have to figure out ways to support yourself, but always carve out time for your writing. You might never get your big break. But if you can gather up enough little breaks, you’ll find that one day success has been dropped into your lap, and you didn’t even notice.

Celebrate all your victories

Looking back, I can think of many things along the way that have given me the momentum to carry on. You don’t have to worry about becoming a household name. It’s better to recognize the multitude of forms success can take. It comes in many diverse shapes, colors, and sizes.

It should be obvious that the philosophy of our community can change radically from year to year. As a consequence, the stories that are in demand one day might not be in demand the next.

This doesn’t mean that the stories are bad or flawed or wrong. They’re just temporarily out of fashion.

The truth you’re here to tell doesn’t heed the trends

No matter what the fixation of the general public, your story matters. The story you need to tell has a purpose beyond your nation and your era.

Even if what you’re saying isn’t profitable or popular, it most certainly is necessary. You have to be true to your stories and tell them. You tell them in the hope that one day a community will arise that can appreciate the wisdom you’ve derived from your experiences.

But it’s up to you to preserve that wisdom and to arrange it in an attractive package, and leave it where it might one day be discovered. Doing that is a victory. Celebrate your victories!

My long line of little breaks

One of the successes I had in my life came when I was in eighth grade. We had a teacher that allowed us to use English class for creative writing. We had to build portfolios and present our portfolios to him, and he would critique our work.

That was the whole class.

It was one of the most liberating educational experiences that I can remember. It was free and unstructured, but it was also easy to take advantage of that teacher.

During that class, we could send off stories to a local magazine that would publish high school writers. I was the first among my class to have a story published.

After mine went through, a couple more had their stories published, but I was the first. Although that achievement was relatively minor in the scope and the fullness of my whole life, at that moment it loomed large. That success provided me with a significant amount of momentum that carried me through some challenging times.

I built on that moment by submitting to local magazines. These would publish stories for anywhere from $5 to $50 per article. Every acceptance was another success. They all meant a lot when I was 18, 19, or 20.

Then came the professional victories

I worked for a time as the editor of a small magazine. That job was also a break, though it didn’t end well. It allowed me to learn more about the other side of writing, the editing side. It taught me the viewpoint of a publication manager and how they’re always on a quest for good articles.

It’s useful to learn from an editor’s perspective what is likely to be published. When you’re an editor and you’re scrambling to fill up the pages of a magazine, you develop a better sense of what is needed. As a writer you can take advantage of that knowledge and make sure that your submissions are more likely to catch an editor’s eye.

I learned how to be the writer that editors dream of in order to make their lives easier. Later on I got to know the editor of a local magazine and he came to rely on me to get him a couple stories per month. He had too much on his plate, and he needed me to consistently provide stories that helped reduce his workload.

My little breaks that came from writing for digital markets

I had another break when I started a blog and I was able to learn about the internet. The blog taught me about formatting articles, taking pictures, and taking advantage of various distribution mechanisms. From the blog, I became the assistant editor of a web page.

That was the first time I worked for a publication with any clout. I learned how to use the name to get through doors and harvest stories from unlikely places.

From there, I’ve been able to steadily increase my reach and level of recognition.

All the little pieces begin to add up

Throughout the years and through these experiences, I’ve gained little pieces of the larger jigsaw puzzle that represents a lifetime in writing. The ultimate image will provide a picture of what it means to be a full-time writer in this period of history.

Over the last few years, I’ve had more breaks with articles that performed well in newspapers, publishing platforms, and social media. There’s more momentum now, but the momentum I gained with my first published article is still rolling along with all the rest.

Bit by bit, it all comes together. Too often, writers are overly focused on editing and refining their work. In reality, they should be focused on the process of gathering and preserving momentum.

Expand your horizons to recognize all that you have learned

We have a long process that’s focused on gaining skills. But these days, I spend less time on the actual writing part of being a writer. That’s the easiest component of this job. Sitting down with the opportunity to create is a joy. The work part is everything else.

At this point, at 50 years old, I’ve spent a lifetime rearranging words. I know how the pieces fit together and I know where the rhymes are. I could do it in the dark at this point. It’s familiar to me. The pieces slide gently together as they should.

But there are still new things to learn. What I’ve found is that every new discovery brings with it another little break. I look forward to these. I expect that there will be another advancement coming soon. In my experience they come along every half a year or so.

They’re all another piece of the puzzle

Every flash of insight, every little impulse of additional momentum, should be regarded as another piece of the puzzle.

What generally happens is people get to the point where the puzzle is only one piece away from being complete. They find the final piece, put in place, and the image is revealed to the world.

People look at it and think, “Oh, you finally made it. You’re here. You’ve arrived. And that last piece was the piece that did it! That was your big break!”

Then they go on to think, “If only I could get that piece, that would be my ticket too!”

But you have to remind them that the last piece you put in place was no more and no less important than any of the other thousand pieces that came together to be part of the whole. As a writer, you get little break after a little break after a little break. Each one provides another bit of momentum to help you achieve the totality of your aspirations.

Assemble your beautiful and unique story

Celebrate every single victory you have as a writer whether it’s finishing a story, or finishing a novel, or submitting your manuscripts for publication. Even receiving a rejection is a break because in all of these experiences you learn more about what it takes to succeed.

The trick to being as a writer is simply to continue. The trick to continuing comes from preserving the momentum of every success. Every success is a piece of the complete manifestation of your beautiful and unique story.

There are no insignificant victories. Every single discovery contains an integral element of the whole. Keep gathering up the pieces. Keep fitting them together. Keep writing. Good things will happen.

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