Failure is Not an Option

I'm putting together a post on goals for the coming year and just had to share this one by one of my favorite writing/publishing bloggers, Dean Wesley Smith (I have to be honest, I haven't read any of his fiction yet. Bad Kort, no cookies for you.)

I’ll bet a few of you got very uneasy by me starting off a goals and dreams series of blogs with the words: “Failure is an Option.”

That’s right, you must fail, over and over to become an artist in this business and to just survive. And that’s normal and perfectly fine.

Let me say this clearly. The reason I am starting right here, talking about failure, is that until you understand failure in publishing, you don’t have a lot of chances at success and setting goals for success. Failure is very much an option in publishing in all levels. However, quitting is not. You quit, you are done. You go into the “whatever happened to…?” authors and after that the “blank look” authors when your name is even mentioned.

So first let me talk about failure. It’s going to take a minute, so hang on. I need to try to see if I can get everyone on the same page here.

Read the rest here. He's got a lot of good things to say and it just might be the kick in the pants some people need to get going in the year to come.  I'll be putting him on my to read list for next year.