Paula Brackston
Keep going!
Doris Lessing said that she felt what made her successful was her ability to 'stick at it' and I think that is so true for any writer.
It is easy to get dispirited when you are working away for weeks/months/years, getting nothing but rejection slips, wondering if your stories will ever see the light of day. It helped me to celebrate the victories, however small. There are rejections and rejections, you know! Some made me laugh out loud, some made me cross, some gave me hope. When the qualities of the 'no thank you's' started getting better I knew I was onto something. Eventually I was getting rave rejections. Soon after came the 'yes's' I'd been dreaming of.
I'll share something with you, it took me nine years to get my first novel published.
Nine years!
That's a lot of writing, and hoping, and picking yourself up and starting again. That's a whole lot of rejection. During that time I did, however, make progress, inch by determined inch: a piece of non-fiction in an anthology here; a short story in a magazine there; a short listing for a competition somewhere else.
You need to have an unshakeable belief in what you are doing, coupled with that crippling self-doubt that every writer has.
And just keep going!
Doris Lessing said that she felt what made her successful was her ability to 'stick at it' and I think that is so true for any writer.
It is easy to get dispirited when you are working away for weeks/months/years, getting nothing but rejection slips, wondering if your stories will ever see the light of day. It helped me to celebrate the victories, however small. There are rejections and rejections, you know! Some made me laugh out loud, some made me cross, some gave me hope. When the qualities of the 'no thank you's' started getting better I knew I was onto something. Eventually I was getting rave rejections. Soon after came the 'yes's' I'd been dreaming of.
I'll share something with you, it took me nine years to get my first novel published.
Nine years!
That's a lot of writing, and hoping, and picking yourself up and starting again. That's a whole lot of rejection. During that time I did, however, make progress, inch by determined inch: a piece of non-fiction in an anthology here; a short story in a magazine there; a short listing for a competition somewhere else.
You need to have an unshakeable belief in what you are doing, coupled with that crippling self-doubt that every writer has.
And just keep going!
More Answered Questions
Kari Williams
asked
Paula Brackston:
Are time steppers immortal? Can't she then, go back and get William? If Gideon learned it, can't Elizabeth and Tegan? What was Gideon doing while the twins tortured Tegan all those days? Elizabeth was so distraught in book two. Book two made her look like a novice and she was so fierce in book one. I got the whole student surpassing the teacher vibe, but Elizabeth needs a book 3 to redeem herself! Lol I need a book 3!
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