Fishing In The Bucket

Recently, our 5-year-old niece went to a birthday party where the main activity consisted of taking all the kids to a local lake and setting them up to fish.

After her bait had been in the water about 10 seconds, she bemoaned the fact that she was never going to catch any fish. (No comments about where she gets her patience.) She lifted her pole out of the water and told her mother she'd prefer to fish out of the bucket.

When her mother asked, "What bucket?" the little drama princess pointed to a family fishing nearby. "That bucket," she replied.

Well, "that" bucket was already full of fish - everything the family had already caught. Pretty much sums up the drama princess's philosophy on life, and got me thinking...

How many times have we as writers wanted to fish out of the bucket instead of taking our chances with the lake? You can interpret this however you like - we each have our own lakes and our own buckets. I know writers for whom the bucket has been a less-than-stellar agent with an offer of representation on the table - and they bravely decided to fish from the lake. I know of others whose bucket has been a offer of publication from a so-so epub. They, too, decided to fish from the lake. But I also know writers who started with the bucket, without ever dipping their pole in the lake at all.

What about you? Where will you fish from? How long will you let your bait sit in the water before you give in to the lure of the bucket? There are days when that bucket looks mighty tempting, I know.