I stayed up late the other night finishing Bacherlorette #1 by Jennifer O’Connell and found some uncomfortable parallels between the hens (bachelorettes) and writers.

In Bacherlorette #1, Sarah Holmes, a freelance magazine writer, leaves her husband and eighteen month old daughter to infiltrate the world of “The Stag” (similar to “The Bachelor”) and write a scathing exposé. If she does well and makes it through the candle ceremonies, she could be looking at five weeks in the world of TV, twenty-somethings and blatant flirting. It was a great story, exploring some serious issues in a poignant yet humorous, light-hearted way.

But what made me shift uncomfortably in my seat was the way I easily identified with the hens: a handful of good-looking (though not perfect), intelligent (albeit looking for love on a TV show) women with successful careers and promising futures. Yet they all came on the show hoping to be the coveted chosen one. I feel like that as a writer – not necessarily the good-looking, intelligent, successful career part - but in hoping to be the chosen one, the lucky winner. When I query agents and editors, I feel a little desperate, hoping, pleading, begging that they will choose me.

But what Sarah realizes as the show goes on is that all of these women have chosen to be on the show – and all have their own reasons.

Lightbulb!

I realized that I’m not desperate (phew!) – although I may beg, hope and pray. I have chosen to reach for published status…at any point I have the choice to walk away and either leave writing behind or forget about getting published and just write for pure pleasure (at this point, I am not necessarily writing to make a living – I have a day job for that). By some magical lighting of the “I get it” bulb in my brain and the resonating “ding” that echoes through my head, that knowledge makes me feel powerful instead of desperate, in control instead of blowing in the winds of chance…and it makes me feel excited about writing again. I chose to join this world and I love it, even though I know it will be a road paved with rejection and disappointment, this is where I want to be, the world I want to inhabit, the sphere of the writer. And should it ever become too much or no fun or just a pain in the butt, I have the choice to walk away and pursue other interests.

Knowledge is power – especially the knowledge of choice.

Keep writing…as long as you choose to do so!

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