STUBBORNNESS IS A VIRTUE

Most people like to think that with writing, patience is a virtue. While that is true, and most of us struggle with trying to remember that when agent/editor response times draws out past what is listed on their website, I like to think that there’s another virtue that is overlooked, but equally as important, if not more. That virtue is stubbornness.

Repeat after me:  Stubbornness is a virtue.

Make that your personal mantra. Because while we’ve been taught to try to ignore the months that go by and immerse ourselves in our next book so that we don’t have time to worry about how long it’s been and why we haven’t heard anything back from our submissions, the majority of us have yet to learn how to deal with the rejections once the waiting is over and the response comes in.

Rejections affect us writers in a myriad of different ways. It makes is sad, heartbroken, feel incompetent, depressed, question ourselves, timid, afraid our writing and why we even think for a second that we have what it takes, afraid to submit our work again, and not want to write.

If that is the how every writer allows rejections to affect them, then wow, we are a sad bunch of depraved, needy and emotional, insecure lot of wimps. No wonder we got rejected.

So repeat after me again:  Stubbornness is a virtue.

Take that rejection and read it over carefully without all the emotional baggage. Then ask yourself, “What can I learn from this?” If it’s just a form letter rejection, store it away in your “Rejection Files” – yes, you must keep one to prove to the IRS that you’re serious about your writing, and to have a memento to reflect back to when you do get published – and send out five more queries.

If it’s a personalized rejection, pat yourself on the back because those are few and in between, and really listen to why that editor or agent passed you on and think hard about what they’ve taken the time to point out to you in terms of what they feel your strengths and weaknesses are in your writing. Consider the possibility that they may be right, and decide whether or not you want to make that change based on how it will affect your story as a whole and your voice. Remember, ask yourself, “What can I learn from this?”

Now apply what you’ve gleaned from that rejection into your work, polish it up, and send out five more queries.

The point is that you should not let rejections take you down or keep you from submitting again. Develop the mindset of a salesman. Writers are not that different from salespeople. Writers have to sell themselves and their stories. So if you can believe that you have to get through one hundred Nos to get a Yes, and every No gets you that much closer to your Yes, then smile when those rejections come in and send out another batch of queries in its place. Eventually you will get your Yes.

Patience is the road that leads to publication, but stubbornness is vehicle that will take us there.

Stubbornness is a virtue.

          - Not to be reprinted without author’s permission.