Friends have been sending me a link that tells the story about a guy “you’ve never heard of”, but seems to live in some northern, cold, European country (where the furniture is sleek), and who worked his tail off (as well he should), and for the past twenty years has written ALL the worlds biggest hits.

First of all, no, he has not written all the worlds biggest hits, though he has written quite a few. Okay. Second of all, yay for him. I would love that to happen to me, too. It’s called monetizing.

By now, though, you know me. So when I get to reading such a story I also get to thinking about the subtext and I wonder why my friends are sending it to me.

Do they want me to think that with hard work and application to my fledgling talent, there could go I?

Did they read his Wikipedia page and ask, “Hey, Angela writes likes him; across many genres and witty storylines; maybe she should go to work for a label?”

Or, do they want me to think I have no chance to write a worldwide hit, so might as well quite now?

The possible subtexts in these messages are HUGE.

The next post will examine these subtexts.