benjamin percy's "thrill me" has inspired me as a writer

I’m a college student who rents all of her textbooks and I rent them used. I don’t care how many people have scribbled in it or highlighted in it, I just want the cheapest option I can get. I don’t buy textbooks because I would have to choose between buying groceries and paying my electric bill or buying my textbooks.

Okay, so I’m an English major so that might be a little dramatic but all the college students out there can back me up when I say that text books are not cheap no matter what your major is!

With that being said there have been a few books that I have read for my classes that have really impacted me. This quarter Benjamin Percy’s book, “Thrill Me”, really had an impact on how I write. So much so that while I originally rented the book for my advanced fiction writing class, I’m considering purchasing it from the bookstore instead of returning it after finals.

I very rarely do this. More often than not I rent textbooks and I either don’t like the content, I didn’t use it much for class, or I never want to see it again after a class is finished.

“Thrill Me” is an essay on fiction writing. Each chapter is dedicated to a different aspect of fiction and how you can improve. As a writer I’ve always been scared of criticism. I get nervous every time I submit something to my professors and I hate when we do workshops in class and the entire class reads my story. When we workshop in class I hang on to the compliments and I try to brush off the constructive criticism or it ends up seeping into my brain and making me second guess if I can even be a writer at all.

Percy’s words in “Thrill Me” taught me that I’m being ridiculous if I keep ignoring the constructive criticism. How can I possibly grow as a writer if I don’t listen to the critiques of my peers and my professors?

The whole book is full of great tips and tricks to writing good fiction, but it was the last chapter of the book that convinced me to buy it instead of just returning it to the bookstore.

As a writer I’m afraid of failure. My friends have constantly asked me to send them some of my stories and I tell them I will when I finish a story and then I never send it to them even when it’s finished because I’m convinced they are going to hate it.

In the last chapter, Go The Distance, Percy talks about all the times he sent stories into different publications and received rejection letters in return. A rejection letter would be my biggest fear if I choose to submit my work to a press someday, but the way Percy talks about it has me thinking that maybe collecting some rejection letters isn’t the worst thing in the world.

He talks about how “Rocky” is one of his favorite movies and how it has helped him be a better writer. How the hell could a movie about a southpaw boxer help a writer? He explains it’s because it taught him how to not give up. To take the hits and keep fighting. When you get that rejection letter put your gloves back up and step back into the ring.

How can you expect yourself to win if you hang up your gloves?

After reading this book I am inspired to never hang up my gloves. He talks about a friend who gave up on writing after one rejection letter and I don’t want to be the writer that gives up. Writing is a passion of mine and if it means I collect 39 rejection letters like Percy did before I finally have my work published, then so be it. Even if I have to collect 49 or 59 I’m not going to give up.

Every time I get a rejection letter in the future I plan on smiling through the hit, revisiting the Percy chapters that I feel will help me the most in my revisions, putting my gloves back on, and trying again.