Here's your pep-talk for the day: You are awesome.
You can tell stories no one else can. Your ideas are good, and with a little work, they'll be great. Keep working. Keep writing. Edit one more time before submitting that story. Don't quit.
Rejections? Let me show you how many rejections I've received (and I stopped counting a year ago). Your brain will hurt. Your eyes will dry up and crumble to dust. Those gates are awfully tiny, folks, and editors can only let so many stories inside. Have I squeezed a story or two through the eye of a needle? Maybe. But an awful lot of them are lying dead in the desert.
Agents won't give you the time of day? They have to eat, too. They have to sell the big books, the ones with fat advances because, chances are, most books won't earn out and make royalties. Remember that needle's eye? It just got smaller. Keep trying. Write a new book. Go it alone. Be blood, bold, and resolute. Laugh a siege to scorn...yes, MacDuff killed MacBeth, but the tyrant had a good run, didn't he?
Sour reviews? Puh-leeeze. Everyone has an opinion and the internet lets them amplify it. Water off your back, dear writer. Keep writing. Keep climbing. They win when you quit. Forgive your haters. Move on.
Sounds tough?
Of course.
But you're tough, too.
You won't give up.
You've already won.
15 comments:
Hell yeah! I'm pumped up. Time to get some writing done!
And it does happen. Write another book, write a better book - write that book that everyone wants to buy. You can.
Every little dead story I've left behind has made me better. Hell, I'm almost ready to be a writer, at this rate!
I really enjoyed this post, Aaron. I'm having my yearly bout of self-esteem issues. (I can repress pretty well, it's a thing of mine, but once a year they just EXPLODE OUT AND EAT MY FACE.) Good timing :D
That is a wonderful post, Aaron. I think it's that way for everything in life not only writing. But it's so true for writers and that is why the passion for it so much more.
Great post.
I think the biggest thing bumming me right now is all the $%# waiting.
"You are awesome."
Heck I tell my mirror that every day ;)
Godspeed, Tony.
Kate - Rinse and repeat. ;)
Glad of the timing, Katey.
Kara - You have to have the passion, don't you?
S. - You learn to forget about it after a while.
Cate - Well, you are.
There is blood on my hands from many a dead story.
Also, you should have started this like Stuart Smalley: "You're good enough, you're smart enough...and dog gone it....people like you."
After 2 rejections in 24 hours, this is just what I needed today. Thank you, sir. Write hard!
Great post, Aaron.
Have a fabulous weekend.
That's probably the most inspiring thing I've read in ages!
Gee thanks. I needed a pep talk today!
Great stuff Aaron - I'm feeling inspired now. Yeah
Hi Aaron have you been wandering around in my brain? God! you're a life saver, I needed that.... Yes, Master, I am awesome... I am awesome, no one writes like me, I am awesome........
Thanks for that kick in the ass!
Post a Comment