Writing 101 -- Clear Eyes, Full Heart, Can't Lose (Maybe)

May 25, 2011 23:17

Moreso than being a batter in Major League Baseball, writing is a business of astonishing failure before success is found.  Consider the following examples...

Robert M. Pirsig was turned down a mind-numbing 121 times before Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was finally published.  Beatrix Potter was forced to self-publish The Tale of Peter Rabbit before it went on to be a much-beloved children's book, a copy of which sits in my own library.  Frank Herbert's classic Dune, widely regarded as the greatest science fiction novel ever written, struggled for years to find a home.  And Madame L'Engle's classic young adult novel A Wrinkle In Time was shot down 29 times before going on to be read by tens of millions of children.

So what does this mean?  Easy.  I got shot down again, and I'm trying like hell to salve my ego.

I've known dozens of writers over the course of my life, and only a small percentage of them suck in a deep breath and try their hand at the submission process.  I'm not saying this to ding the ones that don't; the fear involved in the concept of dropping something in the mail or hitting SEND on that exploratory e-mail is a daunting type that not many people get the chance to experience for themselves.  It's great fun to create, to slam through a novel for the first time and come out the other end scratched, a little dinged up but alive in a way that few will ever know.  And then when it's time to put your feet on the road and try to get it shared with the world... your hands shake.  The spit in your mouth dries up.  You start thinking about any other thing you can do in order to put this distasteful errand off.

In order to succeed, you have to run the risk of failure.  I have failed with Salvation nineteen times, now.  I submitted again tonight, of course; this will in all likelihood push it up to twenty rejections when it's all said and done.

My will is iron.  I believe in myself.

And nineteen times later, it still hurts to fail.

rejection, writing 101, sour grapes

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