No Turning Back Now

by John Chavis
(Los Angeles, CA USA)

I'm a writer, one whose trying to get that first novel published and I have lived with my share of discouragement. Although I've only received ten rejections out of thirty agents I've approached, the pain of rejection is still there. During these times, I try to remember why I write. For nearly thirty-five years of my life, I suffered with extreme depression since the age of nine. It wasn't until later in life that I was finally treated for it. During this period I discovered something that altered my life for the better. I discovered writing. And I think I'm a pretty good writer, even if a few agents don't think so. I guess the thing that hurts the most is when an agent rejects you before he or she have even read so much as a synopsis. But I have to learn to live with that, just like with every other thing in life. My greatest triumph was beating depression. My next one will be to have at least one book published. The reason I write is because I'm getting older and want to have something to leave behind when I leave this world. I want people to know who I was and that I contributed something to the world. My novel may be the silliest thing out there, and then I'm reminded of Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull, once considered silly now a classic. Bach said a professional writer is an amateur who didn't give up. And I can do this. There's no turning back for me, any more than it is for you.