The one that got away

- from Susan

For those of you who read The LadyKillers (thank you, by the way) but don’t have to dish up a post every two weeks, let me explain. Every few months, our glorious leaders ask the rest of us to submit weekly topic ideas and a whole new batch are scheduled, one topic per week. All who post for that week are required (well, requested) to hold forth on the same subject from our individual perspectives.

Now is when I get to say I am not sure how to tackle this week’s grand idea. Should I talk about the high school point guard I had a crush on, or the brilliant idea for a mystery that was released by a best-selling author two weeks after I started writing, or the A List publisher that almost took my debut novel but had to freeze acquisitions when the market crashed in 2008?

It’s a little discouraging to concentrate on the lost opportunities in life, especially when you’re old enough to have accumulated a fair number. The good news is that for every one that got away, there’s another that we can catch and run with, improve on and celebrate, love and cherish. I’m a pretty down to earth person, and I realize that there are good people for whom luck just seems to break bad. But there’s some truth in the expression “for every door that closes, another opens.” If I muster the energy to look forward rather than behind me at the thing waltzing away, I can usually discover something worth holding onto – a new idea for a plot, gratitude that I have a great agent carrying a torch for my work, or the fact that I get to talk about writing regularly with a coterie of wonderful authors, including the amazing group that shares The LadyKillers blog.

So much for the one that got away. Frankly, I’m too busy to notice for long.

 

 

 

Comments

[Camille Minichino]

Good advice, Susan!

Recently a *star* announced the opening of a play with the same subject as a script I've had bouncing around LA for 2 years. Maybe there will be so much buzz about the title character now, and my script will be scooped up!

Or maybe I just need to write another script!

[Susan C Shea]

Camille, Would love for Hollywood to find you! Dang, you do it all, friend!

[Ann]

I like your point about looking forward, Susan. And gratefulness never goes out of style. :-)

[Priscilla]

Loved the post. Inclined to think that "the one that got away", whether point guard or idea, may have "got away" for good reason! Like you, I don't regret, just savor what is.