I’m not a plothole nazzi.

When I watch a movie or read a novel I’m curious about the story and have no trouble suspending belief. Which means I can read almost anything and enjoy it. As long as people are having a great adventure, women are as significant and as strong as men, and blatant stereotypes are avoided.

However, in the success stories of famous authors, there is some mystery surrounding HOW they got to their level of success.

Where does luck fit into the story of ingenuity? Where are the serendipitous moments in their journey that launched their success?

The stories are purposely built to prove that they are uniquely gifted and more hardworking than any other person in their field. Meanwhile, there is a source in the background providing some kind of support in order for the writer/creative to work on their passion.

Am I going to be as honest with my own story? About the numerous stories piled high on various computers in my house? Will I talk about a period of depression when I couldn’t put a single word on paper? Will I ever tell anyone about the struggle to find an audience to get engaged with my blog? How about discussing the reasons why I write stories of heartbreak on my facebook page but dream in fantasy and sci-fi?

Of course, I’m going to be famous someday and have throngs of readers lining up around the corner to get a copy of my latest book. But when that wide-eyed black girl approaches the table, tentative, curious, hoping for a private word to encourage her to persist with the glint of a dream she’s holding close to her heart, what will she want to hear?

That I’m somehow unique? That the special skills that brought me success are unavailable to her? Will I tell her that her particular writing dream is virtually impossible, listing all the reasons why she should give up now? That publishers and agents are so inundated with scripts and stories, so go find another dream because writing is hard?

I vote for filling up those vile plot holes at the centre of success stories. The truth may knock our “literary gods” off their thrones, but it will also raise others around us making our experience of the scene richer.