I Am Not a Success Story: New Post on Rejection at Dead Darlings

I’m going through an extraordinary period of rejection right now, for both jobs and writing-related projects. My friend told me, “I suspect you’ve been dancing with the pluto-uranus square energy since 2012…the aspect is ending in mid-March.” I had to look that up. I’m not sure that I fit the profile of those who are affected by this astrological phenomenon, but I find it comforting to think that perhaps the planets are to blame. She’s smarter and wiser than I am, so I will wait to see if my luck changes next month. I’ve definitely felt the sting of loss, rejection, failure, and other assorted life things in the past five years.

Lacking proof, though, I will believe that it’s just part of being a writer. There’s this feeling, maybe unspoken, in the writing community and otherwise, that we shouldn’t talk about failure, at least not until you are successful and can look back at the failure as a stepping stone that can inspire others. It’s not graceful to complain or bemoan. But I believe there are benefits to sharing the highs and the lows. I celebrate my wins and my losses because it’s a hard road, whether you’re looking for more meaningful work or pursuing your dreams. The hardest part is putting aside the failure and getting back to work. That’s what my latest Dead Darlings blog post is about, basically:

 

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There’s not a lot of advice I can give to other writers about how to be successful. The problem is that there are too many individual interpretations of “success.”

To me, success looks like this: I can pay my electric and mortgage bills, eat sausage gravy and biscuits atTupelo every Sunday, and find at least one hour a day to devote to writing or editing. If those bills (including the ones from the restaurant) could be paid courtesy of my writing, that’d be grand. Given these parameters, I am not successful. Nor am I successful according to your average American writer expectations. I only have a handful of stories published. I have not found an agent.

But one thing I am successful at: Not quitting.
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That cool typewriter image:
Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License   by Joelk75 

 

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