Writers' Luck

Are you lucky? Do you think luck or chance plays a part in getting published, especially for a first book (double especial for a novel!) I am not a particularly lucky person, and yet I've gained the successes I pursued in my writing life. If you believe in blind, dumb, random luck, you might as well stop reading right here because that's the same as religious faith. But wait! Is there a shred of doubt in your mind? Maybe you'd better read on, because I don't think I was so very lucky. I think my successes were the result of a lot of hard work and preparation, as well as a lot of alert standing around in the intersection where opportunity was known to hang.

O.K., sure, I also advocate networking and that "it's who you know", but I'd never have known anyone if I stayed in my cave pounding my Olivetti all those years. I couldn't have produced award-winning photos, poems and articles without learning something about how they are created. I had to know the basics, the structures required and little nuances like always including an SASE with a submission. See, you don't just sit down and write, even a novel, without understanding the form and the differences between a good one and a bad one. Or, in fiction's case, between a good story and not a story.

Take classes, read books, join groups. You don't have to get an MFA or degree in journalism, although they wouldn't hurt and might help. Subscribe to writers' magazines or read them in a library. Take an online course. Participate in forums. And write.