Might and Main Monday: Outlook on Failure
The other day I was researching famous American inventors and came across this quote about failure from Thomas Edison. It struck me as perfect for a writer. We often submit our work for publication only to be rejected again and again. In other words, we fail all of the time. If we’re experienced, we get better at not taking the sting of rejection so personally. In fact, we can use the failures to change and better our writing. We can submit different drafts, different pieces. Edison apparently had mastered this…
Playing the Writing Life Like a Game of UNO
What I love about the game UNO is just when you think you’ve lost, the momentum changes and things start to look up. The same could be said of the writing life. Just when you’re about to give up, you can’t because you never know what’s about to happen. Take my summer. It was a weird one. After spending the spring querying and entering contests and submitting to publications, I had meager results. I had a few manuscript requests from agents, but ultimately, no takers. It was disappointing. Heartbreaking really.…
Failure: Fundamental to the Writing Life
In an interview in Novel Voices, author Richard Bausch talks about how emerging writers must accept failure as a destiny. Rejection stings. We often feel as if we are the lone person whose work is rejected. But it’s a much more universal and integral experience than that, so much so that Bausch believes it’s imperative writers make it a part of their life outlook. In the interview, he says, “If you’re not scared, there’s something wrong with you. Your talent will be tested, and you have to be willing to…
