Cintia asked Jennifer Ashley:

I'm an aspiring writer, but I'm dealing with two things: I get discouraged every single day because 96% of manuscripts are rejected, and I haven't had an idea for years, literally. There's too many people wanting to be writers, and knowing there's so much competition just kills me a little every day. When I get motivated, immediatly something appears about the industry that kills it. Any tips on how to deal with this?

Jennifer Ashley There's a statistic that 99% of all manuscripts are rejected by publishers. The trick is to make yourself believe that you will be one of the 1%. The biggest tip I can give you is to ignore the stats and ignore the industry (there's a lot of bs touted about it.) Focus on your stories. If you open yourself to stories, they come. The biggest crush to creativity is to worry about the publishing industry, which believe me is about everything but being creative! Tune it out. Read what you love. Write what comes from what you love. Do NOT worry about selling it until it's done and the way you want it, and then start shopping it. These days, if you want to be read, you can self-publish--you can post it on your blog if you want! (But be sure it's a well-crafted book first.) One of my sayings for dealing with competition is--Don't worry about everyone else's writing; worry about your own writing. It really works. I hope this is helpful.

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