A Lego Lesson

I've heard people say to "write what you love."  It sounds easy, right?  Yeah, except what you love may not necessarily be what editors are loving.  And then there's the other camp that says to "follow trends."  The problem with this is two-fold.  One, because you're not writing what you love, it may not be your best work and two, you may be behind the game by the time it goes on submission.  Publishing is a very slooooow business.  It seems like a constant tug of war, with us writers doubting our work at every bend on the road to publication.  It takes the fun out of writing.

This Christmas I bought my 8-year old generic Legos.  The one size does not fit all kind.  As his buildings fell apart with the slightest bump, I've watched his frustration grow from growling to throwing his blocks across the room.  The problem was, he was trying to follow the instruction booklet to a T and the pieces just wouldn't fit right.  Stupid cheap Santa!  What was sh-he thinking?  But then today things took a different turn.  I noticed a very relaxed child, taking his time, and using his imagination.  He was ignoring the instructions and building what he wanted.  Yes, it wasn't going to come out exactly like the fire station in the manual, but he didn't seem to mind.  In fact, he didn't even make a fire station.  He built something that interested him.  A tornado chaser truck!  Did it fall apart, causing him to chuck it across the room?  Nope.  All the pieces fit together perfectly.  He says it's the best thing he's ever built and he's been carrying it proudly around all day. 

With all the advice out there that people have to give, sometimes it's best to just observe the daily happenings in your own life and learn from them.  Rules were meant to be broken.  Trends will come and go.  But only you can be true to yourself.  And really, that's the only person you ever need to keep happy.