Make Success Happen

One day, while bashing my head against the keyboard in a fruitless search for Inspiration, I found myself typing the words: "Make Success Happen." I had no idea how the words appeared, what part of my inner consciousness they sprang from, but there they were, staring at me like a SETI signal, announcing the secret of the universe, or at least the secret to getting past my writer’s block.

Obviously, the gods had decided to reward my good deeds with enlightenment. But what a double edged sword, enlightenment. (I did say I was looking for Inspiration, didn’t I? Starts with a different vowel. Doesn’t involve heavy thinking.)

I looked again: Make Success Happen. Me? I asked the gods. Moi? What happened to the Muse?

"Stop finding excuses, and write the damn book!" Captain Picard’s voice intoned to my sub-conscious.

He was right. It turns out I’m responsible for my own success. All this time I’d been casting blame elsewhere: the New York editors, the fickle book buying public, Oprah, the male-dominated literati, Bill Gates, the bashful Muse, the missing page in my thesaurus...when the truth is, I’ve been wallowing in self-induced writer’s block, knowing deep down I wasn’t ready for the big time anyway, so why pretend?

But enlightenment is, well, enlightening. And empowering. So now, just in time for the annual New Year’s resolution, I’ve got a plan. Stop squandering precious time waiting for others to bail me out. Get those characters moving! Get those chapters polished! Get those manuscripts in their Tyvek envelopes, and on their way to New York, where an editor will read them and shout, "Put Oprah on hold! I’ve got the next Nora here!"

Here’s hoping you all make your own success happen in 2001.

--Kathy Flake