{"id":1787,"date":"2013-06-27T08:40:28","date_gmt":"2013-06-27T15:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/?p=1787"},"modified":"2013-06-28T09:58:40","modified_gmt":"2013-06-28T16:58:40","slug":"a-lesson-the-charge-of-the-light-brigade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/27\/a-lesson-the-charge-of-the-light-brigade\/","title":{"rendered":"A Lesson: The Charge of the Light Brigade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Flynn-Errol-Charge-of-the-Light-Brigade-The_03.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1788\" alt=\"Flynn, Errol (Charge of the Light Brigade, The)_03\" src=\"http:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Flynn-Errol-Charge-of-the-Light-Brigade-The_03-248x300.jpg\" width=\"248\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Flynn-Errol-Charge-of-the-Light-Brigade-The_03-248x300.jpg 248w, https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Flynn-Errol-Charge-of-the-Light-Brigade-The_03-849x1024.jpg 849w, https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Flynn-Errol-Charge-of-the-Light-Brigade-The_03.jpg 1591w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 248px) 100vw, 248px\" \/><\/a>A couple of years ago my writing seemed to be coming to a head and I was sure I\u2019d be exploding onto the market in no time launching my career into the stratosphere. I drafted query letters, refreshed my website, branched out to spread the word; I poured everything I knew into succeeding, but it wasn&#8217;t enough. I needed help.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">My stranger-friend in Boston, Lynette, provided enough of a light to keep me going. My next door neighbor found a major flaw in my manuscript. My wife has been patient, encouraging me to answer the one question I should not, by now, be having trouble with: what\u2019s it about. Others have simply told me success is entirely a matter of making the right choices and that I will have to get there on my own.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">People can be very presumptuous when least expected. I asked for help and they heard \u201ccarry me.\u201d That upset me until I reminded myself that being misunderstood for any reason is an obvious problem for a writer. So how could I ask more clearly?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I don\u2019t know why but one small nugget from my history class at Portora Royal in Northern Ireland has stuck with me, a kernel of wisdom following the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade. \u201cDon\u2019t give orders that can be understood; give orders that can\u2019t be misunderstood.\u201d With that in mind I wondered if I was asking the wrong question, that instead of asking for help to succeed I should ask for help not to screw up?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A couple of years ago my writing seemed to be coming to a head and I was sure I\u2019d be exploding onto the market in no time launching my career into the stratosphere. I drafted query letters, refreshed my website, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/27\/a-lesson-the-charge-of-the-light-brigade\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-troubles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1787"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1794,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions\/1794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}