03 Sep INFLUENTIAL AUTHORS
Do you know who is the popular children’s book writer who never once received a rejection slip?
Here are three clues:
She became an American citizen in 1865.
She loved dollhouses and wrote a short story, “Racketty Packetty House” about the lively antics of a dollhouse family.
She wrote her most famous book, The Secret Garden, following the death of her young son Lionel.
This successful author was Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of The Secret Garden, Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Little Princess. Although these titles were first released in the late 1800s, they are still in print today.
During her lifetime, Frances earned a great deal of money from her writing. She gave away a lot of money too—particularly for the care of orphans. She became good friends with many other famous writers of her day, such as Mark Twain and Bret Harte.
But instead of rejoicing at her great fortune and literary success, Frances kept wondering when she was really going to “arrive.” She doubted her own success. She kept thinking there would be “something more.” She once asked, “Is this the party? Is this it?”
You too may have feelings of self-doubt. You may wonder if you’ll ever achieve your writing goals. Even when you sell your first book and are the guest of honor at your first book-signing, you may think you’ll be a different person. Not really. You’ll still be you. So enjoy the research. Enjoy the journey of being creative and developing your craft. Enjoy creating stories that bring joy to you as you write and that can bring joy to children.
Before she died in 1924, Frances realized why she wrote in spite of her self-doubts. She wrote, “With the best I have in me, I have tried to write more happiness into the world.”