Just Keep Swimming

Perseverance –

Noun

1. Steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc, especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles or discouragement.

2. (Particularly for writers) The act of banging one’s head against a keyboard, swilling vodka, proclaiming that this time you REALLY DO QUIT. Then starting all over again.

I’m becoming convinced that perseverance is one of the most important things a writer can have. Because no matter how talented you are, in this business, you will hear no. You’ll hear it a lot. And when it’s not no, you might hear ‘your heroine is an idiot. Fix her.’ And you’ll have to do it. Sometimes you’ll hear ‘your entire MS is totally jacked up. start over’ and you’ll have to.

Doors will close in your face, and you have to go away, create a new reason to knock on it, and stand outside until you get let in.

There are no guarantees in this business, which should be no surprise to anyone since live in general comes with no guarantees. Well…no…that’s not true. I DO have a guarantee for you: If you quit, you won’t make it.

That’s a simple one! And it’s true.

That is the only way to guarantee an outcome in this business (or anything!). Stop trying. But the minute you do that, you reject yourself. As much as it sucks to get a rejection from someone else, rejecting yourself is just harsh!

I once heard it put this way: Don’t make the editor’s (or agent’s!) decision for them by not submitting.

There’s risk involved in perseverance. You risk rejection. Rejection can knock you on your butt. Rejection may require you take to your bed with a cool compress and David Gandy. That’s fine. Be mad. Wail about it. To your husband, your mom, your critique partners (NOT TO THE EDITOR OR AGENT). But then, get up again. Gird your loins. If it helps, look to the heavens and shout I AM LOKI OF ASGARD AND I AM BURDENED WITH GLORIOUS PURPOSE!!! (I mean, or don’t. But you could.)

And then keep going. As Dory put it, just keep swimming. Even when you feel like you’re swimming upstream, do it. Ask a salmon, it’s possible.

Or, if you don’t want to ask a salmon, as someone who kept going. I know a few people who were perilously close to giving up, who nearly didn’t submit that last MS…who then sold it.

This is a game of perseverance. No matter where your at in the process, it simply is. Rejection still happens even after you’ve gotten accepted. Perseverance still required.

In the end, it’s the perseverance that often separates those who make it from those who don’t. And perseverance is in your control.

So, go on. Put your war helmet on and kick some literary butt, baby. Today could be your day. But it won’t be if you just sit down and stop trying. That’s why you have to keep swimming.