by Writing Workshops Staff
A year ago
Thomas Oppong has a list of choices he thinks you'll regret in 10 years. I've pasted his list below and have to say that I agree with him. Do you?
As a writer, everything on Oppong's list resonates with me. What is more true for a writer (a writer who doesn't write, especially, or thinks they aren't good enough) than knowing your choices today will determine the number of regrets you will have in the next ten years?
Writing is an endeavor that takes lots of your time. Sure, you've got to be physically present in the chair to get the work done, to give your writing the time and attention that it needs so that it can gather into something meaningful over time. But you also have to wage a mental war and convince yourself that your work is worthwhile. That the time it takes matters. That your work can find an audience, that it can mean something.
By ignoring the page you are inviting regret, and not just in the short term. You'll regret not making the time long after your ideas have faded and all that remains is the dream you once had.
"Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful." — Mark Victor Hansen
Regrets are the worst, but today you can do something about your choices to limit your regrets in the future. Here is Oppong's list of choices you will regret:
I've learned over more than a decade of failing more often than I've succeeded that there is no perfect time, that you don't need anyone's permission to start but your own, that you should take the reins of your own dreams, that you should be persistent in your pursuit of the craft, and that you shouldn't give up.
The only writers who are published are those that don't give up, writers who persist in the face of what seem like insurmountable odds. So, stay the course, keep your dream in full view, and try as best you can to not regret the days you didn't write. Everything is in front of you right now if you simply make the time to follow your instinct to sit down and write. Your completed manuscripts will thank you.
