Day 13 - Publish

Today is Day 13 of Jeff Goins' Great Writers series and today's topic seems to be the ultimate goal:  PUBLISH

Jeff reminds us that great writers are great not because of talent, but because they possess one crucial ingredient that the rest of us lack:

Perseverance

They know how to stick things through — to push hard and achieve a goal and move on to the next project.

Mostly, though, they understand that until they publish their work, until other eyeballs are on it, it might as well be invisible.

The amateur approach

The amateur doesn’t understand this. We struggle with this discipline of sharing our work. All because of the most potent enemy of art: fear

We’re afraid of many things: failure, success, responsibility, expectation, rejection, misunderstanding, and more. So we sabotage ourselves. Because hiding from the limelight is more comfortable than actually doing work that earns attention.

It’s time to stop that. Make no mistake: An artist doesn’t create for accolades. But if you’re going to do work that matters, at some point it’ll need to get noticed in order to have an impact.

Jeff wants us to Stretch ourself

He's not talking about another blog post or essay saved to your laptop (although, those are good places to start). It’s time to move onto the next risk.

He's talking about a feature article or book or something better. Something that stretches you, something you’ve been waiting for permission to release.

The best part? You get to pick the project. Just make it count. Chances are it’s whatever you’re most afraid of.

The challenge

Today he wants us to publish something. Anything, really.

Send off the manuscript in your dresser drawer, the article you've been thinking about writing for an A-list blog, or that eBook you've been stalling to finish.  Put it out there.
You’ve done great work; time to share it.

If I had something prepared to submit for publication I would do so today.  However, I don't.

Instead I am going to go through the local paper to look for a way to contribute.  I know there is SOMETHING I can write about that would hold people's interest so I am going to figure out what that is and write it.  It might not be today, but it will be soon.

What about you?  Do you have something ready to submit for publication?