A journey of a thousand li…

Surprisingly, I’m not talking about my publishing journey here. I’m going to talk about my other journey. The one I started at roughly a year after I started my publishing journey.

In December of 2009, I looked like this: 

Yep. That was me. 307.8 lbs. Size 28, and about to hit size 30.

May 22nd of 2010, I started Weight Watchers.

This is me, as of last February:

Now, I’m in a weird space in my own head. I KNOW I’ve lost ridiculous amounts of weight. As of last weekend’s weigh in, I was down 79.8 lbs. That’s two of my son, or one Olympic gymnast. I have friends who, if I don’t see them for months at a time, don’t recognize me! I just bought size 14 jeans! I have collarbones, and hipbones! But, here’s the thing —  I don’t SEE the difference on me.

All right, Liz. What does this have to do with writing?

Quite a lot, actually. It takes the same kind of will, the same kind of tenacity, the same kind of “I am NOT giving up, dammit” attitude to get published as it does to lose weight. And it goes just about as fast (or slowly). Someone in my Weight Watchers meeting asking me once how I got published. I answered “I just kept at it. I kept on trying, and working on it, and I didn’t let the rejections stop me. I knew I could do it, so I just kept at it until I sold something–” And that was where I stopped, because I realized I wasn’t talking about writing any more.  Not entirely. Behind the person I was talking to, my leader was smiling and nodding his head. He knew I’d gotten it.

Has it been easy? Of course not! It’s been a long, strange trip, and I’m talking about both trips here. This go around on Weight Watchers? This is my FIFTH TIME to the dance, to Weight Watchers specifically. In publishing? Princes of Air is the fourth novel I’ve written. Why didn’t it work the first times?

Who knows?

I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t good enough. I didn’t have the right head-set, the right mind-set, the right skill-set. It wasn’t the time.

Now is the time. Because sometimes you win.

Sometimes, you learn.