Persistence in Adversity. Never Give Up. Hang in There!

Are we sensing a theme?

I’ve been reading lots of articles and blogs with these themes. Including ones directed to writers. And I’m here to say, emphatically, YES to all of the above.

I’ve been writing for more than forty years. The SAME story, for more than twenty years! (OK, that might be consider stubborn rather than persistent.) My biggest problem seems to be when it comes to actually putting my writing in front of someone else. Because, of course, they’re going to call me out on my Impostor Syndrome. You know, when everyone realizes you have no clue what you’re doing. That you can’t write to save your life. That the last several decades were wasted on trite prose, one dimensional characters, and abysmal plotting.

Now, I’m not a total fake. I’ve finaled in several contests (always a bridesmaid, never a bride), published a lot of articles, and had my first submission picked up by a small press almost ten years ago. But still, I’ve always considered my few successes to be flukes. Mistakes. Or maybe the publisher just had a hole in their schedule.

But no matter how much I criticized myself, I couldn’t stop writing. There were, and are, too many stories in my head that need to get out. Characters that begged to see the light of day. Plot twists that I’d come up with that I’d never found in other stories. So I kept writing, and hiding those manuscripts from view.

Then, a few years after joining RMFW, I started to get braver. I stumbled my way through some pitches. Got smarter and had some pitch coaching appointments. Took lots and lots of workshops. And made a list of agents and editors who I thought might be interested in my stories. And sat on them like I was hatching eggs or something. Because, you know, the Imposter thing kept slicing my confidence to shreds.

Then, in the glow after a Colorado Gold conference, I sent a query letter to a New York agent. And several months later, he requested pages! Ta Da! Or so I thought. I waited for the glowing letter or call about how I was “the one” he’d been looking for. But it didn’t come. So I pitched, took classes, re-edited that manuscript and a few others. Managed to submit to a few different agents and editors. Got several nice rejections. And then one publisher said it wasn’t for her, but to try another publisher, and to use her name as a recommendation. TaDaTaDa! Days. Weeks. Months. A request for some changes. Days. Weeks. Another request for changes. Then silence. Depression. COVID! Then, since I had waaaayyy too much time on my hands, I decided to check in with the people I’d submitted to, even going back to the one from a couple years ago (since he had requested chapters after the query letter, and even sent me an unsolicited check-in e-mail).

And I got a publishing contract offer. Because of persistence. Because I didn’t give up on myself. Because I hung in there and didn’t let the Imposter Syndrome keep me from taking that ONE BIG STEP.

It’s hard right now. I know. It’s scary. Money, jobs, the potential for a killer infection. But don’t let COVID feed your Imposter Syndrome. Instead, let if feed your persistence. Let it make you stronger and more determined to take your writing to the next level. There are on-line workshops, books, on-line critique groups, contests, and other ways to get feedback, improve your craft, and work your way to that scary, exciting, heart-pounding event: submission.

And in order to get there, you also must WRITE ON!