3 Pieces of Writing Advice That Changed My Life

As much as I have internalized inspiring messages like

writing

the book you want to read and believing in your

writing

, I still procrastinate and feel depressed by the quantity and quality of my stories, change is easier said than done, but rarely I will find it. One piece of writing

advice

triggers a metamorphosis, my entire way of thinking changes and I become a completely different kind of writer, behaving in ways I've never tried before. These are the three writing tips that

changed

my

life

. Number one goal for rejection in 2017. I started seriously submitting my writing to professional publications that first year.

I submitted to 11 literary magazines and writing contests in 2018. I submitted to 15, and in 2019 I submitted to over 150. What the hell happened sometime toward the end of 2018? I read an article about literature. Kim Liao's hub, Why You Should Aim for 100 Rejections a Year, talks about a writer friend of hers who seemed to win everything from writing residencies to well-known publications and magazines. This friend

changed

her

life

by saying: collect rejections, set rejection goals. I know someone who aims for 100 rejections in a year because if you work so hard to get that many rejections you're bound to get some acceptances.

Liao describes how our fragile creative egos hold us back because we just want to be loved and accepted. and that is not realistic in the competitive fields of writing after realizing that their submission process transformed instead of saving my story or essay in a bottle as an apology, desperately throwing it into the sea, I launched certain air attacks with Presentation grenades five or ten at a time when I read. This article was close to the New Year, so one of my 2019 resolutions was to collect 50 rejections for poetry and short story writing grants, since some journals could take six months to respond and I didn't have much to do at the time, I thought. that would be an achievable goal for my first year, however, I didn't want to spam journals with sloppy drafts that didn't fit into place.

I still wanted to present my best work possible, so I made sure not to rush to submit the work I had. I was not criticized. I carefully read each magazine's guidelines and their past stories in hopes of increasing my chances. I also favored submitting to paid markets that I respected, but then they require reading fees. I exceeded my goal by collecting one hundred and four, not the best option for our magazine emails and those experiences made me realize that rejection generates even more benefits than I expected. You will hone your shipping skills over the past year.

I learned the ins and outs of the shipping process because I have read so many. guidelines I have mastered how to format my submission, write a cover letter, and find places to submit. I've also read some amazing writing on the websites I've submitted to and that has helped me see what types of articles they are getting. I post and discover new favorite authors as time goes by. I know my writing will improve and when I refine my skills further, I will know how to navigate the industry. A second rejection will force you to develop a thicker skin.

Now I'm not completely numb. to rejection, but I no longer feel the sinking feeling every time I see a new email in my inbox that starts with thanks for sending my eggs are in so many baskets that the most a sample rejection letter gets for me is a shrug every time. I get a rejection. I find another place to send and let the cycle continue. Third rejections sometimes come with personalized comments. Most editors don't have the time or energy to devote to personalized comments because they receive hundreds of submissions, but those rare gems that do. a blessing, a publication that rejected a horror story of mine passed along comments from its readers saying: holy shit, I would love this piece, the premise is unique and totally engaging, the sensory descriptions are honestly beyond anything I've ever encountered before. yes, all yes, even though the story didn't end up being a good fit for the magazine, that kind of encouragement gave me the push I needed to continue submitting that article, custom rejections can also tell me that I need to revise the story before submitting it somewhere else, which is equally valuable.

A magazine editor told me that I like the vividness you're setting and the images and the confidence of your narrative voice. My sense of Roman character was a little slight. I didn't feel completely rooted in the story as a character. As a result, with that specific feedback I was able to more objectively understand why the story was rejected by different magazines. Plus, I want to polish my stories so I can be proud of the final product. I want my work to be the best it can be and published. by a reputable journal that was not only published anywhere that will publish it, as well as a small article pointed out that rejection will increase your acceptance rate in 2018.

I published five small articles in nice places, but they mostly did not pay and in 2019 I had 12 articles. I accepted several of them from paid places, including one that paid 10 cents a word. The fifth rejection means that a writing professional is reading your work. This sounds a little conceited, but as a writer I want to be read, and submitting my work accomplishes that goal because someone has to read. my writing to reject it I take comfort in the idea that something I spent so much time on is being read by another human being even if it doesn't connect with it sixth and, most importantly, aiming for rejection means that you will send more of what will inspire you to write more.

There are countless articles that I have struggled to finish writing or revising due to submission deadlines. I also treat magazine topics or word limits as writing prompts. Craft a story specifically for that market. I wrote a story for a horror anthology that had a 1200 word limit, although the story was rejected for that publication, I ended up selling it elsewhere within a few months thanks to my rejection goals. I finished more stories and poems last year than ever before writers could be too sensitive and insecure we get rejection and think that means the story sucks and will never be published most of the time we just need to get more feedback on it and review it more or we should keep trying to find a good option, I think.

I am not ashamed of rejection, but instead wear it as a badge of honor, even when I am immersed in the hell of submission. I make sure to see my writing as a form of joyful self-expression in the words of Kim Liao. Presentations don't have to be a writer the act of writing is the part that feels like flying number two treat your writing like a business I have a friend who writes at least 10 books a year and we are talking about complete books without typos of 120 thousand words, how do you do it? Get it right, she is a ghostwriter, so writing is one of the main sources of income for her.

He also writes from a plot outline written by someone else and has a developmental editor, myself and a copy editor, who polish his drafts before he publishes them on When time is up, the writing is fluid and the story It's entertaining enough to feel like a publishable book. I have edited 26 of her novels and their speed of production along with the quality of her writing never ceases to amaze me. We work to tight deadlines, so she often turns out the first draft within a month and then revises it a few more times to make changes based on my feedback and that of other editors and beta readers.

She can write ten thousand words in a day if she's feeling feisty. I wanted to know how. she did it and how she avoided creative burnout. Where did you find that level of discipline? She was struggling to finish a draft of even a novel and I begged her to give me some

advice

. This is what she told me. Treat your writing like a business. Think about it as a normal job, even if the process is slow, take regular breaks and say: be hard on yourself. I'd heard similar advice before, but this time it clicked because I saw someone put it into practice by treating writing like it was a business.

It seemed cold and clinical to me, since I prefer to see writing as an art over a craft, first as a business, then as a business. I didn't want to feel like a word factory churning out generic content for the masses, but my friend writes with so much heart and humor and Writing with an Entrepreneurial Attitude clearly didn't change the quality of his output and simply increased the quantity. My mentality changed. Writing was not a hobby. I could put it on the back burner. This short story I started writing five months ago. I need to finish it. today I get feedback review it and submit it puts it on my lap to-do list not on my only to-do list I have to prioritize them I have to be disciplined and I sat down and finished that 5,400 word story in one day it flowed from my fingers my fellow critics They praised it as one of the best stories I had written to date.

After reviewing it, I felt total euphoria. I didn't feel guilty about writing instead of getting ahead at work because writing is part of my job. I also felt intimidated about writing an outline for my middle grade fantasy novel. Sure, I had written a dozen plot outlines for a job that produced a 20,000-word summary in a week, but I had been working to a deadline at the time and was getting paid for it. I had never written a coherent outline for myself from start to finish, with no paycheck or deadline to motivate me externally. I tried setting deadlines for myself earlier but quickly lost momentum, but this was a shorter book and I really wanted to start writing it.

I told myself it was another work project but this was part of my business and voila, I had a 12,000 word chapter-by-chapter outline to guide my draft. Now I'm not talking in terms of spending or making money because writing fiction rarely turns a big profit when compared to the time and resources required to do it well, as Stephen King said in his memoirs, it's not about making money, becoming famous. , getting dates, getting laid or making friends, in the end it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work and be rich in your own life too, so in my opinion, treating writing like a business means approaching it as a job rather than a hobby.

I realized that this approach is not feasible for everyone because work and family responsibilities often come first. Time and energy to write are luxuries, but for me, seeing my writing as something that needs to be done helps me get rid of my usual excuses, hasn't taken the fun out of the process either, and has actually been more inspiring than never. I treated it as a hobby that I'll publish one day because I'm finishing things. I'm producing more stories than ever and publishing them. I'm honing my craft and making mistakes and learning and trying even if you just can. write when you have a free moment you can still think of it as a business by adding small achievable goals to your weekly to-do list any progress is better than no progress defeat number three Envy was the positivity of the seven deadly sins Envy is definitely mine always I have been highly competitive obsessed with being the best and the favorite I look at people younger than me who have published award-winning or commercially successful novels and the green eyed monster rears its ugly head why do I suck so much why am I so slow at writing?

What am I doing with my life recently? I applied for a big writing scholarship. I was proud of my application and really thought I had a chance. I anxiously waited to hear the results and when the organization released them, my hopes were dashed. knackered, the winner had published 45 stories and edited several anthologies and was writing an incredible novel while attending a master's program; there was no way I could compete with that, they deserved the scholarship one hundred and ten percent, but I still felt discouraged instead of gloating too much I tried to see the time I spent writing my application as a guide to bettering myself The application required essays about your goals as a writer and what educational paths you wanted to pursue for me that included books, classes, and mentoring from a professional author, so all was not lost, writing those answers helped me clarify my goals and work toward being a writer worthy of such scholarships.

I also committed to reading the winning author's stories and keeping her name on my radar by adopting this attitude. I was thinking about writing advice naked, a book about writing from romance author Jennifer Propst. She describes her strategy for using kindness to offset the envy she feels toward other writers. Successes one recognizes that denying how you feel is useless, just don't get up, even if it's hard. own private feelings and if youYou feel whiny and angry because you didn't get what she got, she just acts in a way that contradicts the feelings, if there is a particular perpetrator, you can't help but obsess wondering how she got it. that movie deal or TV show made the New York Times bestseller list for the 10th time in a row or you're now rich from a book you didn't even think was that good do something nice congratulate her on Facebook send her an email buy her the book celebrate her Success, congratulate her in front of one of your friends.

You will be surprised how such an action drains the poison from your feelings. Fake it until you do it in person. I hate being fake-nice. I want to be a genuine person, but I can't keep giving it up. I myself feel discouraged by other writers' success stories. I wanted to turn that bad mood into something useful and that's what prop tips gave me a positive outlet for that negative energy as she goes on to say that we are going to have to deal with jealousy at all stages. of our careers when we don't publish, jealous of what's published when we don't sign big contracts, jealous of those seven-figure deals when we don't make it to the best-seller list or jealous of those who do, it's a never-ending vicious cycle.

Break it by practicing kindness. This allows your heart to catch up until you realize that you are no longer pretending in some ways. Along the way, goodwill and acceptance become real. Writing should be a matter of collaboration, not competition. The world is big enough to contain a multitude of books, and supporting other writers benefits the entire author community. We all want more readers and by recommending other people's books we get people. Additionally, everyone's editorial journey is different and there is no set path to success. Some people debut at 25, others at 65, some publish a novel throughout their lives, others a novel every year, you can be a local favorite or a global bestseller.

Don't base your own goals on someone else's because you're not even playing the same game, as the saying goes, the race is long and in the end it's only against yourself, seeking rejection, treating my writing like a business and turning envy into positivity. They have transformed me into not only a better writer but also a better person, even if these tips don't have the effect of changing your life like they did for me. I hope you find the words that motivate you to become the writer you want. aspire to be what writing advice changed your life share the magic with me in the comments whatever you do keep writing