A Confluence of Coincidences

Definition of Confluence 

1: a coming or flowing together, meeting, or gathering at one point - a happy confluence of weather and scenery.

2: the flowing together of two or more streams.

There are many books out there on how to write and how to get published. Whole conferences are held on how to write and how to get published. Toss in how to write screenplays and make a pitch and how to self-publish and there's enough for an entire college curriculum on the subject. Add in all the proofreaders, copy editors, editors, typists, illustrators, graphic artists and layout designers and you have an entire industrial complex.

 

But ask any writer what it all amounts to and he or she will answer with a handful of sentences that usually sound like this:
1. Sit your ass down in the chair and write.
2. Read - a LOT.
3. Exchange manuscripts with other people and get feedback.
4. Be polite. Be kind.
5. Keep submitting your work until someone says yes.

The writers who have done well have had a happy confluence of hard work meeting up with the right circumstances. And they wouldn't have been able to take advantage of those circumstances if they hadn't done the work to begin with.

I was reminded of this loop of serendipity and how it works a couple of weeks ago when it was time to go my monthly writers group. If you got my Christmas newsletter, or even if you saw my posts at the beginning of the year, you know I had a list a mile long of projects I wanted to work on. Personal and family concerns came up, however, and that list went out the window. Writing that was supposed to happen — didn't. I missed a couple of writers meetings. I wasn't in the mood.

Well, that's no way to finish novellas. Life happens. That's just the way it is sometimes and there is nothing wrong with that. You have to learn to work with it. But, the Saturday for the next writers meeting was here and now that it was here, I didn't want to go. I wanted to stay at home and hide and pout. But, I had scraped together time and energy the week before, pulled out one of my manuscripts I've been meaning to work on, revising and reworking it and emailed it to others in the group; I didn't want to waste their time or efforts. And I knew I could use the feedback I would get, so I mustered up the energy to go out the door, down the street to the bank to get money, then to the store to make change and then to the bus stop to wait for the bus.

At the point, I'd been in the sun and fresh air long enough to feel better, and also a little self righteous, because look at all that I had done to get there! And now the bus might be late (because it is sometimes).

And then, the funniest thing happened.

A car drove up to the corner where the bus stop was and I was expecting them to ask directions or let someone out who wanted to catch the bus, but instead, they offered me a RIDE!

I know what you're going to say. Strangers? Offering you a ride in a strange car??? Would you like some candy with that little girl????

In the car were two very pleasant people from CODA Automative driving around in their electric car offering random rides to wherever people need to go so they could experience a ride in an electric car. The guy next to me said no. I said yes and hopped in.

It was a fairly brief ride, but very enjoyable. I didn't have to listen to a spiel. I could have discussed the weather, but I was curious about the car and asked the two women all about recharging, miles, cost, care etc. I'm nowhere near ready to buy a car myself, but it was the best 10-15 minutes of my day at that point. Totally reset my button from kinda grumpy to very cheery. I arrived at the meeting in a different mindset than I would have otherwise and was able to give better feedback on people's manuscripts and accept feedback better, because of that.

I would not have been around to experience that random goodness if I hadn't first gotten my ass out of the apartment and down the street on my own.

I just wanted to pass that along. That's how these things work sometimes. You do the work. You do the writing. You go to your critique groups. You read your assigned manuscripts. You make it to the right place at the right time. And you may do it so many times that it feels like you're going nowhere, like you're just repeating a cycle. And then one day, you get a free ride to work. Or someone shows up in the critique group who sees your work a different way and offers a different perspective. Or when you see a call for submissions from that yearly anthology you've always wanted to submit to, you find you actually do have a piece that is submission ready to go right now.

Because you showed up and did the work.