Everthing I Ever Needed to Know About Writing I Learned from "Annie"

As some of you may know, I have a daughter intested in musical theater, and it's been fun watching her perform and grow as an actress. She was recently cast as Tessie in Annie, and she just got through her first week of rehearsals. Sitting there, listening to them practice, got me thinking about how... everything I really ever needed to know about writing could be learned from Annie.

1. It's a Hard Knock Life A writer's life is not easy. Climb a mountain, slide down a hill. Rejection, rejection, rejection. Like the orphans in Annie, we have to be scrappy, tenacious people who won't let the fact we're orphans (er...un-published writers) get us down!

2. Tomorrow A writer that keeps on going is one who continues to have hope. We have to believe that the sun will come out tomorrow, and that one day, the time, sweat, and tears we spend at the computer will result in our dreams: our book being published.

3. Maybe And then, along the way, we'll get a glimmer of hope: a request for a partial, or a full, or an offer from an agent. And a little further down, we'll get that manuscript out to editors, and we'll start thinking that maybe, just maybe, that one editor will want to buy our book!

4. Easy Street After much perserverance, patience, determination, the time will come, yes it will, that all that hard work pays off. We will hold that little book in our hands, and it will feel like...

Hang in there, everyone! Have a great Monday!