You’ve just received your 10th agent rejection. Or the story so vivid in you mind just isn’t translating on the page. Maybe you’re stuck in the murky middle can’t see your way out of it.
How do you push through?
In this episode, you’ll reset your relationship to rejection, obstacle, and failure. So you can glean the lessons from them, ultimately turning good writing into great writing.
You’ll see how failure can lead to your best writing.
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Episode at a glance:
[02:51] Hear about common setbacks all writers encounter, why you’re exactly where you need to be, and why comparing your work in progress to someone else’s finished book is deceptive and self defeating.
[04:45] Hear the lie we’ve been told about failure and success, and why getting your story wrong over and over is the only path to getting it right.
[05:23] What can you learn?
Rejected by an agent? Or hundreds? Maybe you have to bolster your query letter writing, or work with an editor or book coach to bring your story to a publishable caliber. Your book isn’t coming together in alignment with your vision? Where does it need deeper development? Rather than focus on the problem, explore the solutions.
[06:57] Jerome Robbins once said, you do your best work after your biggest disasters. So respect defeat, and profit from it.
What are those profits? The most valuable profit you gain from defeat is a stronger range of skills.
[08:45] Your skills are the most important thing to cultivate. Skill is how you close the gap between the story you see in your mind’s eye and what you can produce. And the more skill you have, the more sophisticated and masterful your ideas can be.
[11:33] As you develop skill, it’s going to feel uncomfortable. It’s not going to feel fluid all the time and you won’t be as limber. But if you don’t have a broad base of skills, you’re limiting the number of problems you can solve when those obstacles hit.
So failing and learning from it is necessary. It is the process. Until you’ve done it, you’re missing an important piece of your creative repository.
Also listen to:
Episode 27: Writer Rejected: 3 Ways To Bounce Back
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