Small Successes

I found out this morning that one of my short stories is going to be published in The Route Seven Literary Magazine. I'm really excited. This is my second publication and my first in short fiction. For me, every little step is a success, a step closer to my goal of being able to make some kind of living as a writer. It's also becoming a very illuminating experience.
I've been a very reserved person for most of my life. At some point, I became afraid to show anyone my true personality. Writing is breaking down the walls I built years ago. I'm beginning to understand that to write something really good, you need to put yourself into the story and not hold anything back. When I started writing I was always thinking about what people would think about the story, and I censored myself. There are two things that helped me break through this wall. One is my favorite author Ernest Hemingway. His book, A Movable Feast has always been an inspiration, and I feel like I am beginning to understand what he meant by writing truly. At first I thought I could never really do it, but the beauty of fiction is that you can slip in small parts of yourself and no one will know it's you. It makes the characters more honest and the story more believable.
My second breakthrough came from the NaNoWriMo experience. For anyone unfamiliar with this, NaNoWriMo takes place in the month of November and for the whole month you work on writing a 50,000 word novel. If you complete it by the end of the month, you win. It was an intense experience, but it forced me to just write and not second guess or judge. That should be saved for revision. It brought out a story that I had been thinking about for a while but was too afraid to write. I completed my NaNoWriMo novel in two and a half weeks, and I love it. It needs major revisions, but it is a good story and the characters are strong and probably more real and honest than any I've created before. It was a very freeing experience.
More and more I am finding that the pursuit of dreams is important to a happy life. Writing makes me happy, and small successes like my newest one, keep me feeling good and motivated to do more. The best life you can lead is the one that fulfills you and makes you truly happy. There is nothing better.