Just finished our fourth Superstars Writing Seminar, this time in Colorado Springs. I will be posting a report soon, but one of our first-time attendees, Sam Knight, went home and immediately wrote a wonderful summary of his experiences.  His blog is at http://samknight.com/?p=1347. I am reposting it here with his permission.  Honestly, I couldn’t have said it better!

A Lightning Strike on Your Writing Career—Seriously, You NEED to Read This One

Sam Knight

Ever heard the term ‘lightning strikes’ when someone is talking about a confluence of events that made magic happen? An event that happens somewhere, triggering a chain reaction that changed everything to follow?

When we read biographies and watch behind the scenes documentaries, there always seems to be a point in the story where something amazing happens. Something that leaves people saying things like “What I wouldn’t give to have been a fly on the wall in that room!” or “Can you imagine what that must have been like?”

Then we daydream about how we wish that would have happened to us.

When we listen to the motivational speakers, they always point out that you have to make things happen yourself. You have to make it happen. And then, when they tell their story of how they made it happen, if you listen, you always find that one place, that one time, when lightning struck.

Did they really do it all themselves? Yeah, sure. They did. We all do. That really is what you have to do, you have to do it yourself. And then pray for lighting to strike you while you are doing it. Otherwise you just keep trying to do it.

Mark LeFebvre (Kobo), Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, James A. Owen, Eric Flint, Tracy Hickman.

(Photo by Tracy Hickman)

So the secret is the lightning strike? Yes. No. Kind of. You do have to build the rocket yourself, but you also need the lightning strike to create the spark that lights the fuse to ignite the blaze that shoots off the rocket to carry you into the future you wanted.

So the secret is the lightning strike.

What if you already built your rocket? How do you attract the lightning?

Darned if I know. That’s why those stories are turned into biographies and behind the scenes documentaries.

But I can do you one better.

I know where the lightning will strike.

I just spent the last three days at the Superstars Writing Seminar, and it was a full blown lightning storm.

I’m not going to go into any details, there really is no point. They would mean very little to most people anyway, and like anything, things don’t always pan out. So why put anyone on the spot?

I will say this. I saw lightning. I saw fuses lit. I know, personally, for sure, of five people who encountered career changing, if not life changing, lightning strikes at the Superstars Writing Seminar. Where will this go? Where will they go? What will happen?

I have no idea. But I was a fly on the wall. I heard some of the conversations. Someday, I will be reading a biography with one of those five names in it. Someday I will be watching a behind the scenes about it. And I am in awe.

Do you really want to be a writer? Is this really the career you want? If not, thanks for reading this, I hope it entertained you, at least a little.

If yes, lean in close. I have a secret. I know where the lightning strikes.

If you’ve built your rocket, and you are ready, I know where you need to take your lightning rod and plant it in the ground. There are no guarantees, there are never any guarantees, and what you do after you’ve been struck by lightning is in your hands, no one else’s.

But I know where the lightning strikes.

I’m not talking about how to write. I’m not talking about getting inspired, having critique groups, or playing with prose- that’s how you build your rocket, and there are a lot of great places to go learn how to do that. This is different. This is for people who are ready.

I know where the lightning strikes. It strikes at the Superstars Writing Seminar. If you really want to be a writer, you owe it to yourself to find some way to get there next year.

My name is Sam Knight. I just climbed into my rocket, and I’m strapping myself in tight, extra tight, because I don’t know what’s about to happen. I just watched a bunch of rockets around me get struck by lightning, and mine got hit, too. My countdown just began…