"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important."
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
We have twenty-four hours in every day. If we spend the recommended eight of those hours sleeping, we're left with sixteen hours to get things done. But, what if you hold down a full time job? That takes another eight hours out of our day. So that leaves us with a remaining eight hours for family, school, meal times, pets and, oh yes...writing.
The really lucky ones can maybe carve out two hours of that day to work on that book baby, article or story. At five days a week, that's ten hours during the week that you can work on your passion. If you're really lucky you can get a few extra hours in on the weekends.
But then, there's your blog, your newsletter, your social media posts and all of the other marketing efforts that we have to make. How do you make time for it all?
As the old proverb states, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."
One hour here, fifteen minutes there. We fill the void between Disney movies, family issues and walking the dog, with words and worlds that we build from nothing. We work hard. But do we value what we do?
You know that story that's been dancing through your waking thoughts for years, daring you to breathe life into it? You finally do it. You put it out there and wait.
You don't sell a million copies in the first week. You don't get that movie deal. You don't even get mentioned in the local paper. (Yes, that's still a thing.)
Does this mean your work doesn't matter? Of course not.
Repeat after me. My work is important because I've made time for it. It has value because I put time and effort into it.
Writing is rarely a profession of instant gratification. The tangible benefits of our efforts can sometimes be a long time coming. The old adage of try, try, try again has a different meaning for us writers.
Yes we try, try, try again, but we may want to keep detailed notes since all of the rejections and so called failures may well end up being the subject of our eventual best seller. Nothing is wasted.
But being a best selling author isn't what gives our writing value. It's the story behind it that matters. Did you join the 5am writing club? Did you disappear for three solid hours every Sunday? It's the passion you put into it that matters. Did you defy your worst fears and launch your characters out into the world?
You made it happen.
No matter how the story is written, it has been written.
That's what gives it value.