“It’s not time to panic yet,” my publicist said. I’d be peddling “the book no one knew existed,” and my “career” would come to a screeching halt. I’d poured everything into this book, and when I got the bad PR news I feared all my efforts might turn into a cosmic joke. Defining yourself by only one activity leaves you vulnerable when inevitable problems hit. And it worked-I got my novel done, and let no one down in the process.Įxcept, perhaps, myself. Early on, when I first saw the tight production schedule, I knew I’d have to dump ballast from my schedule to complete it, so I resigned from many of the volunteer activities in the writing community that had given me a deep sense of purpose through my many years of revision and rejection. Tricky thing, that tunnel-it may be your imagined route to maximum output, but it can also lead to some pretty dark places.Įspecially when you hit an obstacle that throws you for a loop, as happened when my publisher’s ambitious media campaign for The Far End of Happy, my novelization of my first husband’s suicide standoff releasing May 5, fell through.Įxpectations for second novels weigh on any author, but this is a project I’ve waited seventeen years to write, It’s important to me. All it wants is to lure you deeper into the tunnel of your own mind, consuming your time and energy and spirit until you are fully sequestered. And when the stormy seas threaten to sink your spirit, one of the best ways to stay afloat is to remain tethered to the larger world and a greater purpose. This is not a guess, or a mere function of my confident writer’s voice-it is a given.

You will experience unexpected setbacks and disappointments in your writing career.

The Art of Falling by Kathryn Craft