I was chatting to this woman the other night, at a school drinks evening, and I felt that I’d met a kindred spirit. We had quite a lot in common and she too was an aspiring writer. I'd never really spoken to her properly before, beyond exchanging a 'hello' at the school gates but I'd got the impression that she was a lovely, warm person. I mentioned that I’d recently had a *short story published and added on the usual clauses that I feel the need to insert when people asked me about it: that it was being published by a small, independent publisher and that the book probably only had a very small print run, not widely available in shops or online book suppliers or anything. I said that I was torn between wanting to celebrate this fairly **minor achievement (**other people might see it as minor, but to me it’s actually a fairly big deal) and not wanting to make a fuss. I also said that I was tempted to say to people that I wanted to celebrate this because this might be it, this might be as good as it gets. Then she replied;
“No, (you should) celebrate the moment!”
And I thought - what a lovely idea - celebrate the moment.
I love upbeat and positive people as I sometimes find it hard to cling to the positive myself. I’m a bit of a ‘but what if this happens?’ Chicken-Licken, kinda negative thinker. I find it easier to encourage other people and be positive for them, than for myself, I’m often anticipating disaster or rejection. So I really liked the ‘celebrate the moment’ ethos. It seemed both positive and Zen-like.
Twitter Wisdom
It also tied in with something I’d seen on Twitter, earlier on in the year, when someone said that with writing, success often happened in tiny little increments that were difficult to quantify. You might be waiting to crack open the champagne until you’d won a competition or when you'd signed with an agent, only to defer it until you’d signed a book deal, then waited until you’d sold over a certain amount of copies, then won an award...The Twitter post urged you to celebrate every step of the way and it was very timely for me because an agent had asked to read my full manuscript. This was the first time this had happened. I was cautiously optimistic and a wee bit excited. Surely I should wait until she said she wanted to take me on before I cracked open the bubbly? Then I saw the thing on Twitter and duly broke the foil on a bottle of fizz (Prosecco, not champagne). It was a moment to enjoy because it was a sign that someone's interest had been piqued. In the end the agent decided to pass, I was crushed but at the same time I didn't feel too silly for celebrating the small breakthrough, as I’d never even got that far before.
Why should we need an excuse to have a celebration?
- I think in life it’s important to celebrate the little things rather than waiting for something ‘big enough’ to come along. I don’t think we should wait for a ‘big’ birthday or a significant anniversary to come along, before we have a big old knees up, I think we ought to make a fuss about being married for eleven years or about turning nineteen. Or, if parties aren’t a person's bag, do something that we really enjoy. Sometimes we might think it unseemly or showy to make a fuss but it’s actually really nice to mark things.
I’ve been a little bit passive in the past but if other people don’t give you the fanfare you want - create it yourself.
P.S you can buy the short story anthology here:
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