My Musings: On My Writing Mindset
Writing can be such a simultaneously rewarding and draining experience that I’ve found the best way to approach it is with a mindset of both determination and forgiveness. And most importantly, resilience. For me this means:
Being determined to fill that first blank page with the beginnings of an idea but forgiving myself when (not if) those words are not perfect or even beautiful at first.
Being determined to set and work towards my own personal deadlines but forgiving myself even if I don’t quite meet them.
Being determined to give everything I have to the book I’m writing—the first draft, the revisions, the revisions of those revisions—and forgiving myself when my best efforts to publish still fail anyway.
The most valuable emotion to have though, I’ve discovered time and time again, in this long game of writing and trying to get published is resilience. Resilience to withstand rejections from agents and editors and still believe your work means something in the end. Resilience to take feedback from those rejections and apply it into making whatever you write next become better. And most importantly, resilience to endure even when that second, third, or fourth attempt fails, and still have the courage to—maybe a week or month or even year later (whenever you’re ready)—do it all over again.
Chin up, do keep it up though I must confess to being rather disappointed and weary of struggling with the trad publishing industry. For now, I'm content publishing stuff myself, both via D2D or something and serial-fantasy novels hereon Substack, to build up my platform here.
Maybe you could try that approach with a spare story?
Thanks! And I like the approach you laid out. Right now I’m working on another fantasy book with an agent, so I’ll give trad publishing one last go (my previous book I worked on with this agent didn’t sell) but every day self publishing looks more appealing. Thanks for your advice again!