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Showing posts from June 5, 2009

Perseverance

A nnabelle has been writing for a long as she can remember. From the moment she could hold a pen she was always scribbling something. Aunt Edna said she would be a writer and it was Edna who soothed her when she began to receive rejection letters from all of her favorite literary agents. “Persevere,” she said. “Persevere.” Persevere . Writers hear that word often. If you want to be published, you have to persevere , we are told. It sounds a lot like faith . If you want to be published, you have to have faith . We could also say, if you want to be published you have to believe . It turns out that, as writers use them, persevere , have faith and believe mean the same thing, but they don’t necessarily mean the same to each writer and they don’t necessarily mean what they should. Laura sees Billy with a fishing pole, casting his line into a swimming pool. “Whatcha doin’?” she asks. “I’m fishing,” he says. She peers into the water, seeing no fish. “You won’t catch anything.” He gives her...