I drive my 87-year old father to his memoir writing group every other week, where he meets with 8-10 peers to discuss short vignettes they have written. Each of them takes a turn having their piece of writing “critiqued” by the others. He’s been in this group for seven or eight years, and has written more than 117 stories about his life. I usually wait down the hall from the memoir group’s room. One day they had to use a different room. There was only one chair for me. Right outside the door. So I sat and listened. It was my father’s turn first. My shy, sensitive, grammatically-correct father. This time, he had written about the plants that were in our yard when I was growing up. His job had been as a biologist with the Fish & Wildlife Department of the Virgin Islands, St. Croix Division. What he had written was a combination of scientific and folk information about a few plants, with photos he had found on the Internet of the ones he described. Everyone had shared their writings over the internet before the meeting, so no one read their piece out loud. When it was Dad’s turn, everyone in the room gave him their reactions to the three page piece he’d written. I was not able to hear clearly, but the main comment seemed to be that he might have filled too much space with pictures when it was supposed to be a writing group. There was…

Let’s skip the stories about famous books that were rejected thirty, forty, or fifty-seven times before getting published and becoming well-loved classics. And forget about Stephen King’s nail on the wall that became so heavy with rejections it pulled loose from the wood. Intellectually, we all know rejection is a part of the game, but emotionally… well, emotionally, it’s a different story. So how can we deal with it better, which is to say without becoming bitter, disheartened, or outright depressed? The truth is, successful writers have all found a way to deal with rejection. They accept it or, at least, work through it. As a test of this statement, consider what happens to those who bow under the pressure: they stop writing. From this perspective, then, it’s really a problem of movement. Of momentum. Successful writers are those who keep moving. They, like everyone else, face rejection and keep going. No matter if it’s a form letter, an editor or agent writing personally to say, “thanks, but no thanks,” or a bad review, the professional writer continues to write. Here are some ways to keep the momentum going after a project is rejected: Reframe rejection as a positive step in your growth and development as a writer. Consider looking it this way: you’ve worked hard creating a story or maybe even a full book manuscript. You’ve edited and rewritten and edited. You’ve researched markets, and, finally, submitted. To a certain degree, it’s a case of mission accomplished. The next…

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that,” Stephen King wrote in his memoir, On Writing. When I hear from aspiring authors they don’t have time to read, I think about Stephen King’s observation. The likelihood of publication plummets when a writer doesn’t read. It IS that simple. As a developmental editor my responsibility is to tell it like it is. I am not a cheerleader or psychotherapist. I am not going to tell you what you want to hear. I am going to tell you want you need to hear if your goal is publication. Writers NEED to read. When I hear a writer tell me she doesn’t have time to read, I know the writing will reflect that fact. If you don’t read, how do you know someone hasn’t already written your book? How do you know how to write a book if you don’t study them? Can you tell the difference between a good book and a great one? Study them as works of literary art. Study them as products in the marketplace. Study them from a reader’s perspective. If you want to publish a book, consider reading your job. You need to read widely in your genre and deeply in your subject. Study the writing craft found in the classics in the subgenre. Observe the conventions specific to this subgenre. Notice what expectations readers bring to books of this kind. Keep up with…