Friday, October 2, 2009

How to Survive Drowning in a Sea of Rejection

I read blogs for all sorts of reasons:
I found this blog by a successful publisher the other day, and I wanted to blognap a quote from it and share. Some of you are querying in vain. Some of you hate your day job. Some of you have had horrible weeks and can't wait until 5PM so you can get slothy for 48 hours.

Some of you want to give up.

Well, this successful publisher dude gave some solid practical advice for how to talk yourself out of quitting. His words are simple yet genius:
"[W]hen Gail and I have a fight—yes, we do have fights—I ask, 'So why should I stay in this marriage?' Instead of pushing that question down like holding a beach ball under the water, I let it surface and embrace it. 'What is at stake?'

But notice: I’m not asking 'Why should I quit? because I will get answers to that question too. The mind is tricky that way. It will attempt to answer whatever question you ask it, so you must be very careful with how you frame the question. Instead, I focus on the positive. I am looking for reasons to keep going."

Got it?

Why should I keep going?

not

Why should I quit?

I'll help you get started. One reason I keep writing: because some stories hit me with a truth so big and obvious (yet not) that my heart feels like it's going to explode out of my chest, and I want to make other people feel that. What's one of your reasons?

4 comments:

  1. Oh, what a fabulous post!

    Why should I keep going? Because there is nothing better than the sound of a child's laughter and I can't imagine a greater joy than knowing I caused a kid to giggle.

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  2. Ooh, I love that approach. Trick the mind. Very ingenius, and something I know I'll have to use. Thank you, thank you!

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  3. Great post!

    I won't quit. Even if I never get published, maybe my children can get my stories published. Even if I end up filling entire hard drives with unsold MS's, I won't quit. Because I love to write, to create places and people. If I don't the ideas out of my head, they will boil over, roiling out of head in the form of a stroke.

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  4. Lovely quote and sound advice!
    What a great question, too. One of the reasons I write is because it keeps me going.

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