Follow Roxane Gay on Twitter and Learn All the Secrets That Don't Exist

I love Roxane Gay on Twitter. She is ridiculously straightforward and responds to those who question her with a direct self-assurance that I can't even imagine possessing. It's beautiful.

A while back, this tweet had a serious impact on me and I saved it:

There are no secrets. You need to submit your work to appropriate publications, relentlessly.

— roxane gay (@rgay) May 15, 2018

I really like remembering that for most things I want to do, there is no "secret" to success. Want to be a writer? Submit your work to people who publish writers. RELENTLESSLY. (What a word. Relentlessly. I submit things to publications from time to time. Roxane Gay submitted relentlessly. The gap in achievement from people who work on things occasionally to those who work constantly must be massive.)

On one hand, it reminds me that it's basically all my fault that I'm not where I want to be on certain goals. This isn't an entirely pleasant feeling. On the other hand, it reminds me that I have the power to change that if I sit down and do the freaking work! This is a much more pleasant feeling. There is something I can do about it! I just have to do the things!

Giphy

If you click through the tweet, you'll see that the next one is someone asking what "appropriate publication" means, to which she responds, "Publications you've researched to see if they're a good fit for whatever you'd like to submit or pitch to them." To which someone ELSE says, "I don't even know how to start researching this. There are a lot of scammers out there. A list for different genres would be very helpful."

Can we all take a moment to appreciate the amount of labour we expect from famous people?

First, we demand they tell us their secrets. Ummmm, guys? If she tells us it's not a SECRET anymore! Also, if there was some secret ritual to success (as a writer or anything, really), then don't you think that the ones who got let into the club would be a little more selective about who they passed it on to? I mean, vampires don't just turn every dope they meet into an immortal, earth-walking, half-demon. It would thin the blood pool.

Second, after they've told us the secret but the secret is that we have to do work, we demand they pleeeeeease do it for us? It sounds harrrrrd!

Yeah. No. Be grateful for the time people like Roxane Gay already spend VOLUNTEERING to help answer our questions and then do your own work.

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