Follow The Yellow Brick Road by Amy Kennedy

 

I’m reading a book on what it takes to be an entrepreneur and build a great business:

Heart, Smarts, Guts, and Luck, by Anthony Tjan, Richard Harrington and Tsun-Yan Hsei.

http://www.hsgl.com/index.php

Here’s the thing, when you work at a public library all kinds of books (you’d never know you wanted) come across your desk, and serendipitously garner your attention. Just like this one!

I judged this book by its cover and ordered it.

I’ve never thought of myself as a businessy kind of non-fiction gal. Yet, lately, some of the business/management books I’ve read have helped me with time management for writing, building the right platform, and how to grow a business of writing. This book is no different. I loved how passion for the project is one of the key ingredients.

When I started reading this book, I was struck by how useful parts of it could be to a writer (even if for just a jolt of positivity) and how it was, clearly, a riff on The Wizard of Oz!

Here’s how the authors defined the traits a person needs for success (yellow brick road):

Heart = Authentic Vision (Tin Man)

• Purpose
• Passion
• Sacrifice
• Nuance

Smarts = Pattern Recognition (Scarecrow)

Business Smarts = Book Smarts + Street Smarts + People Smarts + Creative Smarts

Guts (Lion)

• To initiate
• To endure
• To evolve

Luck = Attitude (?)

• Humility
• Intellectual curiosity
• Optimism
• Lucky network

If Tin Man was the heart, Scarecrow the smarts, and Cowardly Lion the guts, who, then, was luck? The Wizard himself, lucky to land in Oz, lucky to be in charge and then lucky to know that each character had what they wanted inside themselves all along. Also, he certainly put himself out there with the whole balloon ride.

And what about Dorothy? Why, she corralled them all, didn’t she?

And so can you. Because we’re all Dorothy (suck it up guys–you’re just a different version of Dorothy) on the yellow brick road with our heart, smarts, guts and luck, looking for our own idea of success.

So, remember:

• Have a passion for your project, love what you do. Heart
• Edit your work at the right time, and never stop learning. Smarts
• Be brave enough to sit down and face a blank page, heck, be brave enough to write what you want and continue to write. Guts
• Be in the right place at the right time. Put yourself out there so you see the serendipitous posts and meet great people. Luck

 

But what about those witches…

The Wicked Witch of the West is clearly that internal editor, the one you don’t want, the one that comes early in the project: you’re not good enough, you can’t do this, surrender to Facebook.

I like to think of Glinda the Good Witch as ROW80, there’s all kinds of ruby-slippered you-can- do- it magic. Be sure to check in on other ROWers, like on the Facebook page (it’s okay, this time) and visit others from the linky page. We’re in this together.

 ~*~

Amy Kennedy

A Cautionary Tale by Amy Kennedy

I was at my first (only) Romance Writers of America convention listening to a panel of authors discuss how they came to be published. Eve Silver/Kenin said she always wanted to write light, humorous Regencies. So, she started writing one, except, it became dark and brooding. What was wrong? She tried again. A different  story, same darn outcome – dark, dark, dark.  Finally, she figured it out: light was not her voice. D’oh! Once she fell into her natural writing voice, the words and the stories came easily. Now, she is a well-pubbed author with Gothic, Post-Apocalyptic, and Paranormal Romances to her credit, with nary a light one in the bunch.

 

My mouth hung open, just a little, when I heard this story.

I had the exact opposite problem. I wanted to write dark, brooding tales; paranormal romances with tortured, damaged (did I say tortured?) heroes and heroines who’d fought back against enormous odds. So, I’d start to write something dark and Gothic and brooding, and everything would fall apart. One liners flew out of nowhere,  physical comedy dashed itself onto the page, and banter, banter, banter — ack! could no one just have a meaningful (tortured) conversation? Do you see where I’m going?

I could not write dark.

Okay. So, there’s this wildly talented author telling me she tried to write light, and couldn’t. Maybe, just maybe, I should learn something from this. So I gave in, I let the banter fly, let the physical comedy run amok — I enjoyed writing again. I enjoyed it. I’m not saying it was/is brilliant, but I enjoyed it, wanted to get back to my characters, back to the situations I had thrown them into. It was fun!

So my point, and I do have one, is: To thine own writing voice be true.

That’s all, don’t force yourself to be Ernest Hemingway if you’re actually Janet Evanovich, and certainly don’t be Janet if you are, indeed, Ernest.

Don’t. You’ll be happier, trust me.

~*~

Amy Kennedy