Guiding Principle the First

TAKE RISKS.

For people who want to write, the biggest risk (often) is sending something out. But here's the deal. No one's gonna come hammering on your door, BEGGING you to see that manuscript you're too afraid to share. So put it out there. And while you're at it, put yourself out there.

I am not a natural born networker. I was grotesquely shy when I was younger. And now I'm just (kinda) fat and (thoroughly) lazy. But I do like to remind myself of that time when I forced myself to go to a party where I knew absolutely NO ONE and met the editor of Utah Holiday who (upon discovering that I was from that wasteland, aka in his world as "Utah County") told me to find out about a Junior Great Books controversy brewing in Lehi and write something about it for him.

Which I did.

When I showed up at his office a week later, he was surprised I'd followed through, which was instructive in and of itself. How many of us don't follow up on opportunities? He published the piece, and for a few years thereafter I often had a feature article in the magazine.

Anyhoo. Take risks.

Amen.