Keep Telling Me I’m Not Good Enough

Fuel for writers.

Keep putting down my ideas.

Keep rejecting my manuscripts.

Keep telling me I need to write stories about the black experience if I want to get noticed.

Keep ignoring my readers. Tell me they don’t matter because they don’t number in the millions.

Keep telling me I don’t have enough Instagram followers to matter.

Keep telling me to edit. Then when I’m done, tell me to edit again. And again. And one more time after that.

Writers. Our lives are full of rejection. Full of people telling us our work is just not good enough. But we are our work so how do we not take that as, “YOU just aren’t good enough?”

Every no is another pinch. Every rejection email like a soft punch in the gut. Every negative comment a slap to the face. And we endure this day after day, week after week, month after month, and for the best of us, we suffer endlessly because no matter what, we know we can’t stop.

C.R.Y.

Keep Telling Me I’m Not Good Enough was originally published in C.R.Y on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.