The Cinderella Complex is defined as an unconscious desire to be taken care of by others. And let’s face it, we all have times in our lives when we feel like that, which is perfectly okay. But pinning all of your hopes on being rescued by someone or something outside of yourself won’t really get you very far in life (unless you are in fact Cinderella). For the rest of us though, we have to become our own champion and make our own dreams come true. The following article, in which I compare waiting for Mr. Right in our personal lives to waiting for Mr. Write in our professional writing career, features on Books By Women.
The Cinderella Complex – Waiting For Mr. Write
Go on, admit it. We’ve all day-dreamed about being the writing world’s equivalent to Kate Moss and being spotted in an airport (although, I’m not sure how likely it is that an author would be spotted in an airport). But let’s face it, unlike Kate Moss, most of us have to work at being discovered and believing anything else is, well, a fairy tale.
The Cinderella Complex, a term first coined by Colette Dowling in her ground-breaking book of the same name, describes women’s hidden fear of independence. However, I don’t agree that this is purely a ‘woman’s issue’. Men are equally guilty of hoping someone else will swoop in and give them their happy ending. (Ahem.) For years however, it was women who were encouraged to place all of their hopes and dreams on the arrival of Mr. Right, who would magically make all said dreams come true.
Read the full article on Books By Women here.
Evie Gaughan 
Mmmmmm yes I have this…
We all do – I like to think of when Glinda tells Dorothy, “You had the power all along, my dear”!
Yes, I think many male writers — this one anyway — can relate to the dream of their writing being somehow discovered and championed. Save a lot of blogging anyway!
Haha, good point! I blame all those ‘overnight success’ stories, filling our heads with publishing dreams. I think we need to hear more about the writers who have slogged for years before achieving their overnight success, it would certainly give us all more realistic expectations. Thanks for the comment 🙂