Motivational Quote #4

I'm posting this a day early because it will be a busy weekend and I don't want to forget my writing friends.

"Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed."-Abraham Lincoln

Discouragement. We writers deal with that a lot in our business. We get discouraged when our work is rejected by editors; we feel discouraged when a critique indicates weaknesses in our story; we know discouragement with every passing day as we remember that our name isn't on a book that is strategically placed on a shelf in our nearest Barnes and Noble.

And yet, if we saw these moments as opportunities, our outlook may be very different. How about seeing that editor's rejection as acknowledgment that he's only saying it isn't right for him, not that it's wrong for the many other publishing houses out there too. Could it be possible that a critique filled with constructive criticism gives us a chance to make improvements to our manuscript prior to submitting it to a potential publisher? And maybe, just maybe, the reason our name isn't on a book yet has more to do with it not being the right time and the right book than that we don't deserve it.

Lincoln is not telling us that discouraging moments will never come our way. He is suggesting that we not let those moments take ahold and steal our dreams away.

You have the power to change how you view these moments. You can see failure or you can see opportunities for improvement. Your point of view can be part of what brings you from the realm of the aspiring author to that of the published author!