The Power of Perseverance
After many years blogging with Bad Girlz Write, we’ve closed our doors and shut down the site. But I didn’t want all those posts to go to waste, so I’m going to be reposting them here where they can live forevermore. LOL
This particular post was the most visited on BGW and the one I referenced the most while I was part of the Pitch Wars contest. Three years have passed since I wrote this, but every bit of it is still applicable to each and every writer I knowโpublished or unpublished, with one or fifty books under their belts. Keep on keepin’ on, friends.
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Since I already did my post on whatย I constantly screw upย for this monthโs theme, Iโm going to use this post to write about something thatโs important for any writer: Perseverance.
If you want to make it in this business, you need it. Thereโs no denying that. You will constantly face obstacles and challengesโnot to mention rejectionโand itโs important you keep on keeping on.
This is the second year Iโm a mentor forย Pitch Wars, a writing contest where hopefuls submit their work to a limited number of potential mentors, vying for a slot as mentee. If chosen, thereโs two intense months of rewrites and revisions under the guidance of a mentor, leading up to the agent round.
Right now, itโs selection period. The mentors have been researched (hopefully), their wishlists scrutinized. The submission window has closed, during which the hopefuls submitted their polished work, and now theyโre all waiting with bated breath, hanging on the tweets of the mentors to see if their MS will be selected.
As I was trying to figure out what to write for this post, I put out a call on twitter (as one does) and asked what the Pitch Wars hopefuls would like to see. I got several tweets, but the one that stuck with me was,ย What should we do if we donโt get picked?
Well. Iโm glad you asked. Grab your marshmallows, gather around the fire, and let Auntie Brighton tell you a little storyโฆ
August 2013, I submitted my query and the first 250 words ofย CAGED IN WINTERย to a contest (I canโt remember which oneโฆI thought it was Pitch Madness, but the timing doesnโt work, so just make one up) and then I waited. And I hoped. And hoped some more. I wasย so sureย Iโd get picked.
And then I didnโt get in. (Dun dun dunnnnnnnnn)
Did it suck? Hell, yeah, it did. Did I give up and never write again? (Spoiler alert: myย sixth [now tenth solo, eleven co-written] bookย released last month.) So, uh, no. I didnโt give up. I picked up my bruised ego and my dented pride, and I kept going. I continued on the path Iโd intended. I was fortunate in that my path wasnโt much longer. Two weeks after that rejection from the contest, I received the first of four agent offers on CAGED IN WINTER.
So what does this tell us? A few things: one, everyoneโs path is different. Some get in contests and land an agent immediately and their book sells at auction. Some get in and donโt get any requests. Some donโt make it in and get a dozen. Some donโt do contests at all and query for a week and get an offer. Some find an agent after years in the trenches. No two paths are the sameโyour path isย your pathย for a reason.
Two, some manuscripts just arenโt made for contests. Thereโs not enough room for them to breathe. They canโtย shine. From 140 characters to 50 or 250 wordsโฆor even one chapter, sometimes thatโs not enough to get to the gold of your manuscript.
Three (and this goes for more than just contests, but for errrrrrrโthing in publishing), reading is subjective. Ridiculously so. Every person who reads your MS is bringing their life circumstances and their baggage with them, and that affects their reading experienceโfor better or worse.
Lastly, the power of positive thinking didnโt kill me. It hurt a little after my hopes got crushed when I didnโt make the cut, but the main reason I was able to wallow for an hour, then shrug it off and keep going is becauseย I believed in my work.ย
I feel like I need to repeat this while putting it in all caps, bold, italic font, so I think I will:ย I BELIEVED IN MY WORK.
If you want to persevere in this business, you haveย gotย to have faith in what you write. Because if you donโt? Whoโs going to?
During the 48 hours, give or take, since the submission window closed for Pitch Wars, there has been an influx of tweets on the hashtag, most mentees biding their time chatting while they wait to hear. Unfortunately, thereโs been aย lotย of negative thinking hanging out over there, too. Many are certain theyโre not going to get in. So certain of it, theyโve pretty much written it off. Meanwhile, I still have approximately 30% of my subs to evenย open, let alone read. Theyโve thrown in the towel before weโve even had a chance to read their name on a submission form.
Iโve always been a believer in the power of positive thinking. I get excited over things that may never happen, but I do it because it makes me happy. I like looking forward to something, thinking about all the good possibilities. Is it disappointing? Well, sure, sometimes. But, hey, life is disappointing sometimes. At least this way I got some genuine happiness fromย hoping.
Hereโs the real truth: this industry is chock-full of disappointments and rejections and many, many noโs. Thatโs just a fact. You are going to face it every leg of this journey from finding agents to publishers to working with editors to readers’ reactions to your book baby. The good news is itโs also full of lots of good news! But youโre sometimes going to have to wade through the bad to get to the good. One thing that helps is to remember youโre not the only one to go through this. Head on over to the good olโ google and search for famous author rejections. There are aย lot. Pages and pages of them, and many of them are classics or beloved books, ranging in category and genre. But what do they all have in common?
Not a single one of them gave up when they got that inevitable โnoโ. Will you?