Writing life: Don’t give up
Author and lecturer James McCreet considers some ways of getting through the ‘dark times’ of a writer’s life
The announcement of 2015’s Booker Prize winner came with the news that Marlon James had had his book rejected 78 times before finding a deal. He actually gave up at one point, believing that he was not writing the kind of books anyone wanted to publish or read. He is not alone.
Most writers will experience doubts, fears and even feelings of hopelessness in their careers. When you receive rejection after rejection, when you just can’t seem to get better, when you manage to get one book published but then the publisher doesn’t want any more, when you achieve something that looks like success but sales wither and you become persona non grata on the shelves... such things are common in the life of most writers. Rejection and failure far outweigh success.
We may surrender. We may throw up our hands in ultimate frustration and sigh, ‘Why bother? I’m just wasting my time. I’ll never be good enough.’ After all, every writer is, by necessity, a perfectionist. ‘Nearly there’ is never good enough. I’ve felt it myself. On at least two occasions, I’ve told everyone that I’m writing no more novels. But then I write another one.
Perhaps you’ve so far been immune to such thoughts. Perhaps you’re still in the honeymoon period of writing. Still, the longer you continue, and the more ambitious you are, the bad times will come – whether you achieve success or not. Here, I offer some perspectives on what to do and how to think when you feel the darkness creeping. Anything to keep you writing.