What if No One Ever Wants What You Write?

The possibility of this happening is greater than the alternate truth. In fact, writers have a greater chance of being rejected over and over than of being struck by the lightning bolt of success. As with any artistic profession, success in writing is a lot of luck, timing, and that serendipitous connection with someone who shares your vision. For some writers, success just flows; for others it’s a futile slog.
Are you a slogger? How do you deal with that deep inside your soul? Maybe you can compartmentalize and after lots of rejections, you just say “Okay” and move on to try again. Then again, you might be on the verge of packing it in, giving in to despair.
My trilogy, “The Moon Singer,” germinated over a span of 20+ years. The first book, The Crystal Clipper was rejected by everyone I submitted it to. Frustrated, I tried to also be honest: “Maybe it’s not good enough yet...maybe I’m missing something...or maybe THEY are. So I put the book down for a while and worked on other projects. But, of course, I was compelled to write this trilogy, and even sketched out a sequel, The War Chamber, and made copious notes for the final adventure, The Wind Rose. All of them remained unfinished for years while I worked on other stories.
For two years I wrote, rewrote and polished The Crystal Clipper, then wrote, rewrote and polished up the remaining two adventures. I had self-published a mystical trilogy for young people with no vampire sex, or flesh-eating demons, or teens killing for sport or survival. I then worried: “What chance do stories like that have in today’s market?” But I pressed on because I love the meaning of the stories: selfless heroism, a boy overcoming his disability, a family love story that breaks your heart. And subjects that fascinated me: reincarnation, soul travel, self-empowerment, spiritual illumination, music’s power.
Then a new worry popped up: “Would the deaf community embrace it (my hero is a deaf teen) or be insulted because I tread into an area I had no personal experience with?” But I queried a blogger of fiction for the deaf community and received a wonderful featured spot on her web site. I was honored.
Ask yourself why you write? Are you compelled? Is it your calling? Do you have a story you are aching to tell the world? Are you writing “for the market” (you’d better be a fast writer, if you are)? Are you a writer for hire - getting assignments from a publisher and being paid a flat fee for the result? Does this satisfy you? Or do you long to follow your own creative path and take a chance that you will strike literary gold?
Go ahead then, pour your heart and soul into your work. Write and rewrite, edit and polish. Maybe it will suck. And maybe, just maybe, you will create something that you were meant to create, something that fulfills you as a person/artist/author; something that fulfills your destiny. Wow! How many people get a chance to do that - whether they sell one copy or millions? How many can say they have transcended the material world into the spiritual and metaphysical ether of divine self-actualization?
So, ask yourself, “Who will want what I write? Who will get it?” All you need is ONE PERSON who shares your vision!
YOU.