Here’s what’s led me to feel like a writing failure:

1. Reading what I wrote eight months ago and realizing how awful it was…and wondering if that’s how I’ll feel eight months from now about my current attempts at a novel.
2. Suddenly noticing that my character arcs are pretty much non existent; and why hasn’t this occurred to me until today?????
3. Proofreading an email; sending said email out to several dozen people; rereading said email and seeing a massive, embarrassing typo.
4. Facing the puzzle of not knowing who my main character is anymore; should I have two main characters? Should I ditch my original main character? But I love her! It’s complicated. Sigh.
5. Knowing that there are second graders out there who spell way better than I do (I helped as a round keeper at a spelling bee this past weekend). Double sigh.

Definitions of failure, just for fun (not):

Failure = lack of success, falling short

Quotes on failure, and my responses, for some more fun:

“Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be” – John Wooden

What if you can’t figure out how to change, or you have the inability to…at least within one lifetime?

“The phoenix must burn to emerge.” – Janet Fitch

I wish I were a phoenix; then, at least I would know I had hope.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison

Yeah, I’ve found about 500 ways…does that mean I have 9,500 left to go? Cry.

“Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.” – C.S. Lewis

It’s a long road and I’m walking barefoot, in the mud, and with a broken heart (okay, maybe not that bad).

“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

I don’t fear failure, I live and breathe failure.

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”
― Theodore Roosevelt

Is it? Really?

“Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald

…but how about several dozen? I feel confused.

Okay, that’s all I have for now…time to go have a cup of coffee.