Rediscovering the 'Me' in 'Mumeeeeeee'

'I have always thought that there is no more fruitful source of family discontent than a housewife’s badly-cooked dinners and untidy ways'. (Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, 1861)

May 8, 2011

Note to self

I just wanted to write a few words to remind you that you should not be discouraged, or totally fed up or disheartened because everything you read and hear about the publishing industry at the moment seems to be bad news for writers, even the really successful ones with dozens of best-sellers behind them, let alone for the, frustratingly titled, 'Budding Novelists' out there.

I know it's very bloody frustrating that just at the point in your life when you finally had the maturity, discipline, conviction, ideas, inspiration, decent coffee and nifty Netbook to actually start writing those novels you've been going on about writing for literally 20 years, the publishing industry seemed to pack up and move to the moon but.........

......you should not be discouraged, or fed up or disheartened because, well, quite frankly, you're going to keep writing those pages anyway aren't you, because you can't not keep writing them.

So, when your characters have an entire conversation in your head while you blow dry your hair and when you wake up in the middle of the night and seem to have found a clever way to get your plot to go in the right direction, you should keep writing it all down. Block out the cynics and the sceptics and those who tell you it is practically impossible for an unpublished author to be signed 'these days'. Keep going to book launches in the hope that by the laws of probability it should work out that, one day, maybe, it will be yours.

Keep writing and make it the best bloody writing you are capable of and then edit it to make it even better. And then keep your fingers crossed and your anti-rejection force-field switched on. After all, everyone loves a trier!


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12 comments:

  1. Aw, bless you you little encouraging bundle of positivity! That made me smile, thanks x

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  2. Hear, hear! (And I have that mug, the coffee tastes better out of it!)

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  3. Very very true - and I wholeheartedly concur with the wisdom that says write it first, worry about publishing it later!

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  4. Exactly! Because if I can do it - anyone can! (And I have, so you can!)

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  5. Well said, it's far too easy to get put off!! Don't listen and try to keep writing...love it x

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  6. I think I need to read this every day - very true and very encouraging!

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  7. Where there's a will, there's a way!

    Thanks for lovely positive, bound to make you smile blog entry.

    x

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  8. Great post! sounds so positive and inspirational..

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  9. You're a good one for taking the time to encourage the rest of us. Many thanks. Now leave alone I have a novel to finish

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  10. You read. my. mind.

    Signing off.... off to continue the novel. Thank you.

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  11. Thank you so much for posting this! It's so easy to get discouraged!! Thanks again!

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  12. What an inspiring post for this wannabe, work in progress, so-called novel writer! An author (whose book was published to great reception after a trillion rejections) said during an interview: "no matter what, a writer keeps writing, it's what you have to do, it's what I did."
    So I'm off now to do just that.
    Thanks for encouragement!

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