Any journey you set out on requires time and at least some hard work. No matter how difficult such travels may be, though, the destination is always reachable. Wrong turns may be made along the way or a cliff then a thicket of thorns may stand between the starting point and your goal, but ultimately with some careful thought, a little sweat, and a never-say-quit attitude, you can overcome those setbacks and obstacles.

In many ways, writing a story or a book is much like a journey in which you are out at sea on a rowboat. Your destination – a palm-fringed island or the published novel fresh from the printing press – beckons in the distance. Though making a straight line for that objective seems sound, the endpoint is farther away than it initially appears. So you row a little harder.

Sometimes rough waves and the receding tide push you back and deeper into the waters. As a writer, this may be the equivalent of rewriting a chapter, or restructuring a subplot, or redeveloping a character.

In the rowboat, you must remain persistent, not allow the ocean swells to sink you; as a writer you must not allow the editing of a piece or the thoughts of a beta reader overwhelm you and keep you from believing in your goal.

Instead you must concentrate solely on rowing…on writing…of dipping oar into water…of pressing pen against paper. After a while, you look up and realize that landing is indeed closer.

And then, suddenly, the oars no longer can go as deep as they did before…and there’s only a few paragraphs left to write. You’ve reached the sand rising to the beach…the final page of your tale.

At last, you can you stand triumphant.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.