There was once a movie called The Highlander. Maybe you remember it? What started out as a little story about one guy just trying to stay alive turned into a multi million dollar franchise with a number of movies, a tv series, fan clubs, and a whole line of merchandise to keep the multitudes of Highlander fans happy. I confess, I am one of those fans. The thought of immortality is an interesting one and the storyline can be reduced to one simple mantra...THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!
What might be good for the movie might not translate so well into the writing world however. What if there was only ONE top best seller? ONE successful author? Even if there was just ONE per genre, there would still be a lot of us left out in the cold. Words are a powerful avenue. Nations have been born from words, lives have been destroyed from words, and hope is sometimes reborn simply from the words a writer chooses to use.
I think I will use The Highlander movie tagline THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE as a writing chant but with a new twist. I will tell myself there is only ONE way to create the best story I can. There will be only ONE path I will travel to publication, where rewrites and polishing my words are the tools of my trade. And in the end, I will glance behind me to see others who might have given up or been cut down by the challenges to become a published author but for me, THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE winner in my fight for success and that ONE will be me!
