A few days ago I wrote about professional jealousy. (Boy, what a negative post that was!) That kind of drag-you-down-and-kick-you attitude is in the minority. Thankfully.
I'm a member of Romance Writers of America and qualify for PRO status within the organization. Basically it means that I'm actively seeking publication. There is a PRO email loop and I have to say that I've met some really nice people there. We commiserate with and encourage each other in a way that no one else can. Because, bottom line, no matter how supportive your family and non-writer friends are, they can't really understand.
One of the PROLoopers (affectionly referred to as Oat Cakes) said it best:
I try to comfort myself with all the wonderful positive phrases that I've clung to over the months and years of rejection. But for a day, I feel as if maybe I've got it all wrong and I'd probably be more successful selling origami...or oat cakes. But alas, both the optimist in me, along with my passion for writing, barrel their way through any realistic thinking in calling it quits, and insist I press on. . . . As rejections hit the mailbox and eventually the shredder, I remind myself: I am a writer and my stories must be told. To deny myself this joy is to deny my passion, my spirit, my yearning for something so sweet even a little taste now and again keeps me going.
We keep writing because to stop would be to die.
1 comment:
Hear, hear! :?) My family is very supportive of my writing, but they still don't quite "get" how it works. Or how I work. Or how the people in my head, crying to get their stories out, make me "creative," not "crazy." Luckily for me, one of my CPs is never more than an instant message away. If I couldn't vent to her, I'd be sunk.
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