Dec30

diagnosis: chronic “stupbornness”

Posted on by
Standard
Art Institute of Chicago, photo by Vicky Lorencen

Art Institute of Chicago, photo by Vicky Lorencen

When you’re stupborn, you’re stupid and stubborn. I know because that’s what I am. At least that’s what I surmise. The lab tests are inconclusive, but a decade of firsthand observation cannot be ignored.

After more than ten years of writing, revising, reading, work-shopping, conference-going, networking, critique-grouping, class-taking, submitting and querying, I am still without a book contract. A smarter, less bull-headed person would have given up by now.

And why not? No one is forcing me into this pursuit. It’s self-inflicted without question. Yet, here I am peering into the shiny, giddy-go-lucky face of a new year and I am trudging ahead. I am not buoyed by hope or spurred by optimism. In fact, I feel quite hopeless. But my chronic stupbornness will not permit me to retreat or resign.

 

 

How about you?

Are you stupborn too?

You are? Oh, bless your heart. You need a cookie and a nap. But first, I’ve culled these quotes to encourage you:

There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me. ~  Jane Austen

I promise I shall never give up, and that I’ll die yelling and laughing, and that until then I’ll rush around this world I insist is holy and pull at everyone’s lapel and make them confess to me and to all. ~ Jack Kerouac

It gives me great pleasure indeed to see the stubbornness of an incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed. ~ Albert Einstein

Happy New Year, my dear, sweet, stupid, stubborn friends. (And yes, yes, certainly, warm wishes to my smart friends too.)

Let’s show 2015 what we’re made of!

10 responses »

  1. I think the year of “Unbroken” book/movie, the spirit of Louis Zamperini, should be our masthead for 2015. Talk about a stupborn will to live and succeed! Let’s all succeed this year!

    Like

    Reply ↓

  4. Raising my glass to you my stubborn comrade! We are, in fact, “Kindred Spirits of Stubborness!” I’m beginning year 14! Woo Hoo! My track record includes one lost agent, one fallen-through book deal and enough champaign rejections to wallpaper my bathroom! So here’s to beatiful stubborn stupidity! May it serve us well (or at least a little bit better) in 2015:) And congratulations Kris Remenar! You are my hero!

    Like

    Reply ↓

Thank you for leaving a reply.