B = Be Persistent
Putting the ‘B’ in HABITS in the CREATIVE HABITS series.
If you have had an article, novel, short story, or book rejected by a publisher, don’t worry you are in very good company. Legendary authors like J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, Clive Cussler, Dean Koontz, George Orwell, Enid Blyton and Sylvia Plath all have had work rejected by publishers before going on to become world famous serial best selling authors.
The key to becoming successful as an author and infopreneur is learning how to be persistent.
Creative writers need to be persistent in so many ways.
You need to be persistent in actually doing the hard work of writing. You need to be persistent in crafting your words, and editing or proofreading your own work to improve and reduce errors.
You need to be persistent in aiming for publication of your work when it is completed, and that includes picking yourself up after a rejection letter, and starting the process again. You need to be persistent in believing in yourself, your craft, and your ideas, or you will take every rejection letter to heart.
The payoffs of persistency are high.
If every author stopped writing after the first rejection received, there would be no books in the world. Believing in yourself, and knowing you can write well, will help you to remain encouraged, even in the face of a rejection. The trait of persistency will help you to overcome these obstacles and taste the sweeter nectar of success in the end.
Writers who patiently work at perfecting their craft will enjoy greater success than those who settle for writing mediocrity.
You can dream big, and succeed, if you have the trait of persistency that won’t let you give up when things get tough. Writing is a craft that can be continually developed, as you learn new techniques, words, and tricks of the trade to use in your work. The harder you work at perfecting your skills as a writer, by reviewing and editing your own writing, the more you can drink from the cup of success.
If you give up easily after a rejection, or even constructive criticism, you will not learn from the experience. There is great joy in improving your work, and paying attention to constructive criticism can help you to achieve this. Persistence in striving for continuous improvement will pay off.
Being persistent can actually help you to achieve more writing.
If you want regular clients or customers who will finance your writing work, you will need to persistently achieve results for them. This means producing the work in the format, time, and word length requested or wanted by them. You need to be persistent in putting in the hard yards to meet your deadlines, if you want to retain your paying clients.
This means that you also need to persistently make a commitment to your writing, and dedicate enough time to practice your art. As you steadily work away at perfecting your craft, you will find the proofreading and editing gets much easier, as the first draft will be closer to the desired final product than when you first started writing. You will also find yourself writing faster, and generating more creative ideas to write about, with practice and persistency.
The payoffs of developing the quality of persistency are high.
It will mean you won’t become dejected if a rejection slip comes your way, you will work faster, and more efficiently, and you will enjoy the crafting of your words. Doggedly working at becoming a successful creative writer is not always easy, but it is worth it in the end.
