Second Thoughts on Second Times

My good friend and Bandita Trish Milburn has a weekly feature on her personal blog. On Thursdays she asks a writer friend to answer three questions. Last week she featured my answers. Unfortunately, I wasn't around to respond to the comments. Plus, one of the questions really made me pause and ponder. In fact, I pondered for several days, so I thought I'd repeat the question and my answer here.

If you were to go back to age 20, what would you do differently the second time around?

Just about everything! No really, you know how they say hindsight is 20/20? Well, knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t have to bumble around and make all those mistakes.

I wouldn’t worry so much about whether or not I could ‘afford’ to do something. Instead, I’d just do it! And I really wouldn’t care what anyone thought of me.

But seriously, with regard to my writing, I wouldn't wait so long to make a real commitment to getting my work published. I wouldn't worry so much about whether or not I had that magical "talent" because I'd know that dogged persistence is far more important.

I'd trust my writing process and not be so afraid to keep submitting and working on new projects.

I'm still working on this last issue, by the way.

What about you? Would you do things differently if you had a second chance?