Discouraged
What do you do when you are feeling discouraged? This is question for my fellow writers out there.
I know that getting recognized takes time. I know that developing work that is worthy of recognition takes even more. Yet, knowing doesn't make the sting of repeated rejection any softer.
I want to keep writing, but I feel that I have nothing left to say. I have nothing to contribute to my half-finished works. I have no words to start putting the ideas into solid work. I have ideas, but they sit stuck in idea form. They are locked away and I can't break the seal or the lock even enough to get a trickle of creativity to start coming through. The pages lay blank. My shoulders slump. My brow furrows. I sigh.
I feel stuck, and I know it is stemming from feeling discouraged. I know this because, when I go to write, a little voice in the back of my head is saying, "are you sure this one will be good enough? Is it even worth it?"
My friends keep trying to remind me that everyone takes awhile to get published. How many publishers rejected Harry Potter before it was accepted? While they have a point, I know the truth. I am not J.K. Rowling. I am not Tamora Pierce, Agatha Christie, Tolkien, or any of the other writing titans out there that I so admire.
My work is no Harry Potter. Try as I might, it never seems to be enough. Even the pieces that I feel are my best, I still find to be lacking. As such, I look at the challenges, the prompts, the calls for submissions. I have nothing to say.
My fellow authors, how do you manage when you feel discouraged? How do you keep going? How do you find confidence and purpose in your writing again?