I Manifested My First Published Short Story
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Thank you, Universe, for fulfilling a dream.
Early this year, I heard of an anthology competition. They were looking for stories on first loves. On a whim, I wrote one and submitted. It took me a week to write and edit.
Turned out the deadline was gone.
But.
The publisher reached out to me that their printing had stalled because of some technical delay (ISBN No. or something) and he has time to read my story. And he liked it. And he decided to include it in the collection.
To say I was ecstatic is an understatement. I was stunned. My story? In a book? Whaaat?
Oh My God, here it is:
The truth is: I know I manifested this.
The thing about manifesting something is to put in the effort even when there is a chance of no palpable return. I haven’t visualized getting a book deal, or even publishing one story.
True manifestation occurs when you sit down and do the work. When immerse yourself in your work. Make sacrifices for it. Create a process and stick to the process, day in and day out. Even on the days the process doesn’t work for you. You still keep at it.
Because grit. Because perseverance. And because you love the process.
That’s how the Universe intends it.
That, I’ve found, is how you truly manifest a dream.
I’ve been seriously working on my craft — publishing stories here and there — for three years now. I mentor people on the craft of writing. I even started doing professional content writing, just to get more practice and improve my craft.
A writer’s life is a solitary life.
We work in oblivion: tucked into a corner of indiscrete cafes, hunched over laptops after we’ve completed our day jobs; writing a piece, then rewriting it, then editing and then re-editing it.
Nobody knows what we’re at. Nobody understands the perseverant toil of a serious writer.
All of this, for the moment when you see your own name in print.
You can check out the book here.
A couple of excerpts from my story:
So, yes. I’m a published author.
And you don’t know how satisfying it is to type that sentence.
P.S. After this one came out, another publisher who’d ready my story reached out. They offered me a book deal. It’s going to release next month. Yay.
