This month we’re taking a big step back from the writer’s craft (wasn’t Story Structure month great?!) to focus on the inner writer. How our behaviors, thoughts, beliefs, patterns, and routines affect us as writers.
For me, I’ve been in full-on query mode for eons. It’s time-consuming. It’s fraught with rejection. It’s emotionally exhausting. And it leaves my husband wondering why I’m doing what I’m doing.
I wonder the same thing sometimes…until I get motivated again. Here are my tips for facing rejection and staying motivated.
Step 1. Do all you know to do.
At the beginning of this year I decided to make a final push for my middle-grade manuscript. It had suffered from multiple rejections and rewrites. BUT, I thought, as long as I kept getting requests, I owed it to my book (and all those long hours I’ve put into it) to do everything I knew to do. My sweet little story made it to the finals in a contest, had a full request from a major publisher, and a number of agents had requested either partials or fulls. There had to be something to the manuscript, right?
Apparently not enough.
My characters will have to stay beloved by me, and tucked away in my backup drive. Years from now I’ll pull the manuscript out. Maybe then I’ll see what I’m blinded to today and go *headdesk.* Or, maybe I’ll still love it and the market will be in a different place and I can revive it.
One of my favorite writers and bloggers, Janice Hardy posted this blog yesterday: I Quit: When to Give up on a Novel. Worth a read if you are debating moving on. She gives some good solid tips for looking at your manuscript and making that big decision.
Now that I’ve officially made the decision to stop doing any more work on WIP #1, WIP #2 is Queen Bee and finally getting some full-on love. I learned a lot from my first attempts to land an agent so I already feel ahead of the game in that department.
However, having been a survivor of a period of long-drawn-out rejection, going forward with this next manuscript, I’m going to pick up the pace. Last time, I queried in very small batches, waited until I’d heard back from each round of queries before starting another, and once even gave an exclusive look.
This time: Query in larger batches and send out a new query when I get a rejection. Keep it going. No exclusives.
And that staying motivated part?
I like reading other writer blogs—reading other stories of successes and failures. Rejection is not uncommon in this business; it is the norm. We can’t take it personally and we can’t let it stop us from trying again.
We can encourage one another.
Next for me? I’ve got a new story ready to go. New characters that deserve a chance. Again, I’ve put in countless hours and the manuscript deserves a chance. I need to do everything I know to do to give it that chance. Full-on query mode.
What about you? Any tips on how to stay motivated despite the rejection slips?
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I haven’t started the querying process but knowing my friends and family are cheering me on and waiting to read my novel keeps me motivated to make it the best story I can write.
It stings. Sorry about that. I’m on WIP 4. I submitted 1 and 3 and 2 was to slow on the take. It’s about vampires and I didn’t even bother querying. It helps me to think that they are still alive. I can always go back to them and figure things out. But the next one needs me now. The R’s well, I keep going and finding support wherever I can get it. Good luck!
Mallory, I won’t let my friends and family read my WIPs (except my writer friends). LOL. It’s great you’ve got a fan base already
EArroyo, I’m with ya! Thanks for the well wishes.
I keep reminding myself – particularly as I participate in class critiques at school – that not everybody likes the same kinds of reading, no matter how good it is. Just because someone doesn’t like my work, it may only mean it’s not their style. Then I keep looking for and keeping track of the people who do like my style.
Oh, how I can relate to this.
I nailed my query letter, sent it out to a couple dozen agents and got a 5 requests for fulls within a couple of weeks, 7 within a month, along with a few partials. I even had fulls passed around between agents, and though all agreed I had writing talent and a unique voice, as well as a timely and original premise, I was rejected either based on personal preference of voice or or because my concept was too niche for the current marketplace.
It was most certainly disheartening, especially as one of those agents (who happened to love my voice) was the agent of my favourite author (within her genre). So close I could taste it.
What I did take from it was that I did in fact have a project with a lot of potential on my hands, and a unique voice – great reasons to keep on trucking!
Most of all, I was glad for the encouragement from two agents in particular to take my PR background and creative concept and self-publish. I had thought up to that point tht self-pub was career before-it-starts suicide, but the more I looked into it and where it’s going, especially thanks to the e-book, the more I realized – Heck ya, that’s for me!
Particularly since I know I’d be doing the overwhelming majority of the promotional work myself anyway, so why should I give away all the profits?
I went from demotivated to motivated in a matter of months and now I’m more excited than ever because I can keep ALL of the control of my vision and I happen to be a control freak.
Thanks for the great post!
Wordsmith & Wesson — Wow, sounds like you really were close! But I can also sense your excitement in your new venture. Keep in touch, I’d love to hear how it goes
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