Dream Big. Work Fiercely.
Jody Hedlund on meeting a young, enthusiastic writer:
I was amazed to find out Amanda is 14 years old, writes 1000 words a day, has completed four novels, and has already begun to pitch her books at various major writing conferences.
While that is pretty awesome and I am in no way attempting to make light of a 14-year-old girl’s achievements, if you’re ever able to belt out 1000 words a day and complete four novels, it’s when you’re 14 years old. Let’s see how she gets on with a full-time job to keep up.
Come on. I’m mainly joking.
Anyway, for the rest of us, the real point is this:
We can have great intentions, but we have to follow them up with plain-and-simple hard work. That means we have to make plans, plot out our goals, and then do the daily work of getting from here to there—even when we wake up some days and feel like giving up on our dream.
Like Jody says in her title: dream big, work fiercely. Or as I sometime put it when I’m feeling all whistful: reach for the stars, expect nothing.
Thanks for this; really interesting. And let me say thank you SO much for adding the part about what she’ll do when she gets a job!! When I was an early teenager I bashed out words at about the same rate (I suppose, I was enjoying myself too much to keep count) but in the past few years college work, organising university, my burgeoning love and social life took over my time and now I find it hard to get back into the writing rhythm. I use sites like this to keep me motivated, kick me up the a$$, so to speak, and get back to the keyboard. And congratulations Ian, hope the big day went swimmingly!