Facing Rejection and Staying Motivated—Part 2 of 4

Step 1. Do all you know to do.

Recap and more thoughts: Becoming a published writer is a journey. (A real one as opposed to a two-week reality TV show “journey.”) With each book you write, you will grow and get better. But in the mean time, do all that you know to do. Don’t get lazy; put in the work you know you have to do. Even when you are tired and don’t want to. No shortcuts.

Step 2. Learn what you don’t know.

Obviously, if your work (not you) has been rejected, there are likely some things you don’t know. Either about writing a good query letter, or about writing in general.

So what to do? Learn.

Learning is the easy part of writing. You get to study published writers to see how they did it. You get to read books on craft and go to workshops and conferences. You get to read writer blogs and follow Twitter rabbit trails.

Just as our novels are layered, so is our learning. That’s why we can read yet another how-to book and learn something new. Even if we knew it before—now we can apply it better. The second time around you might catch a different nuance, causing your brain synapses to fire like crazy.

For example, just when I think I’ve read everything on how to write a good query, this short video comes out from agent Kristin Nelson that made me think. Huh. That’s a better way to think of the query! So much easier to wrap my mind around.

Another great resource out right now is over at the WriteOnCon website where they are gearing up for this summer’s conference with live agent chats. The transcripts are posted so you can sit down and study the queries followed by the agent’s responses. Enlightening.

Last word about learning: If you are tired of slogging through the trying-to-get-published mire, setting aside a season of learning is a good way to take a break without completely taking a break. Stepping back, but not stepping out.