Ignore success. Concentrate on excellence!
As most of you know from experience, validation can be hard to come by as a writer. And isn’t that exactly what most of us seek as we start out? I know as a new freelance writer a few years ago, validation seemed impossible to find. I received either silence or rejection from the many editors I contacted.
I now see this as the initiation period of becoming a writer. If you can make it through that kind of rejection, you may have a chance of becoming a writer, however you define it. Because one of your biggest challenges will be finding validation from inside yourself.
In other professions you go get a job. When I first became an academic librarian back in 1979, I “became” a librarian when I got my first job. With writing, validation is not so simple, but it is the key to all future excellence.
I was surprised to find how much of a difference winning a writing contest yesterday made to my own sense of validation. I know it was just a silly competition, the first I have ever entered, but I loved the feeling of some else finally calling me “a winner.”
My own midlife crisis began after I lost my job and my career as a librarian back in 2004. This experience included memorable moments of debilitating fears that I WAS in fact a midlife loser. I even eventually wrote a workbook to help others with these dreadful feelings called: “Feel Like A Loser? What To Do When You Don’t Have A Clue.”
Getting past all of your fears of rejection is your first job as a new writer. Look for your validation inside of yourself, because you know you MUST WRITE! Then go out and find out where you belong in the wide world of writing.
I know this can be quite daunting at times, perhaps the greatest challenge of your life, but once you find your special niche, you have it made!
