Posts Tagged ‘Family & friends’

Let’s add to those negative beliefs and action-blocking fears I mentioned in the last post. The ones which stop many of you from turning on the computer each day and opening your manuscript to continue writing! Some other common fears include:

• Fear of rejection
• Fear of success
• Fear that you only have one book in you
• Fear of failure

Let’s start by looking at the fear of rejection. It’s not just writers who suffer from this! All humans fear rejection at some point in their lives – rejection by a loved one or partner, rejection from a boss or colleague, and even rejection by friends and family.

For the writer, rejection is by far the most common of fears. We worry that after spending months (and in some cases years) slogging away on our novel, publishers, literary agents, and perhaps even friends and family will say it’s not good enough to publish. Not a chance. Give up now and get back to your day job!

But the likelihood that this will happen is, let’s face it, pretty slim. Even if a publisher, agent or family member doesn’t believe your book is up to scratch, they will normally deliver the message with some degree of tact.

If this does occur, you can always fork out for a book critique or professional book doctoring service and integrate the suggestions. Think of it as a final polishing of your work before you send it out to other publishers and agents.

And remember that many of the top writers of our time have received rejection after rejection before they finally made it. J.K Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books (and now a multi-millionaire), endured dozens of ‘no’ letters before finally seeking gold. One publisher told her, “you’ll never make money from writing children’s books, Jo.” Imagine if she had given up…

We’ve all heard the expression ‘perserverance pays.’ So it’s simple. Choose to perservere instead of fear!

With Love

The Word Queen xxx