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Filling The Shoes

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Good Afternoon Folks,

Today I was watching my son put on a pair of shoes that were too big for him. They're about 5-10 times as big as his feet. I laughed watching him shuffle forward remembering other times he'd put on shoes that were gigantic on him. Then that gave me an idea for today's blog post, so kudos go to my son for today.

In the published book world there's some big names out there...

Names like Jane Austen.

Charles Dickens.

JRR Tolkien.

CS Lewis.

J.K. Rowling.

Stephenie Meyer.

Stephen King.

John Grisham.

Nicholas Sparks...

The list goes on. Names we recognize. Names that remind people of huge sellers, titles that made Best Seller Lists on things like The New York Times Best Seller List and so forth. There's Newberry Award winners (Shannon Hale comes to mind), those who have gotten a Pulitzer Prize for writing.

Then there's those of us who aren't published. Us aspiring authors who would love to have our names be recognizable (even if we weren't as popular as the list above, just knowing that someone recognized our name synonymous with one of our books that did well).

There's big shoes to fill. Sometimes they're our size. Sometimes they overwhelm us with how large they are. Either way, like our predecessors we have to be sure to put our best foot forward no matter how the shoe fits. It's about willing to admit when something doesn't work and fix it. Or swallowing our pride to allow some one's critique help us improve our writing. Or glowing over comments telling us we did well.

They're shoes we have to fill. The shoes of the author. And only we can find which shoe fits and have our "happily ever after." That might mean finding the right niche, genre, or "voice".

How have you gone about finding the right fit? Does the shoe fit or are you needing to wear big socks to have it fit? Is the shoe too tight, so you have to find one bigger?

Have A Toe-Tapping Thursday!
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Comments

Marsha Sigman said…
This made me think of my son and how when he was little he loved to wear my shoes. It was hilarious...he would be horrified if I reminded him of that now. But what a great analogy..finding the 'shoes' that fit us best. I think at first I was too timid with my writing. I tried to write what I thought was popular instead of finding my own story and writing for me.
I hope that I am on the right track now...these shoes feel just fine.
Thursday, 01 October, 2009
Bethany said…
Marsha,

Awesome! Yeah, kids are cute when they're trying on their parents' shoes. I don't know why they do it, but I guess it's just because they can. LOL

Glad you found your fit! Enjoy :-)
Friday, 02 October, 2009
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