Persistence
I am nearing the end of reading Roots
Something he said impressed me. He started writing as an amateur while in the military. But in the beginning he was unsuccessful.
The idea that one could roll a blank sheet of paper into a typewriter and write something on it that other people would care to read challenged, intrigued, exhilarated me…I don’t know what else motivated and sustained me through trying to write, every single night, seven nights a week–mailing off my efforts to magazines and collecting literally hundreds of their rejection slips–across the next eight years before my first story was bought.
The idea of trying and failing hundreds of times over a period of eight years is amazing to me. This is particularly poignant for me because a couple weeks ago my first academic submission was flatly rejected. Hopefully it won’t take me eight years to get published. But I have to remember my eventual success is not contingent on getting rejected. Learning from the process is what’s essential.
Loading ...
July 13th, 2007 at 6:59 am
the mere fact that almost everyone is rejected for publication repeatedly – and so many people want it – is a daunting scary inhibitor to writing. Maybe there’s something to accepting that that’s normal – ‘collecting’ the rejections as testaments to all the work you’ve been doing – all the self-expression and dedication. That’s awesome that he did it for 8 years – awesome.
sorry about your first publication attempt. – ah the academic journals. Good luck with your revisions. What was your topic?
July 13th, 2007 at 7:34 am
Thanks for the words of encouragement.
I explained a little about my topic in this post: http://stevepiccolo.blogspot.com/2007/03/first-academic-paper.html