Author’s Note
The Tenacity of a Writer
If you look up the word writer in the Funk & Wagnall’s you will find the following definition: One who writes, esp. as a business or occupation, one who makes or creates with words. That is what everyone in this room is driven to do. Penman, Penner, Pen pusher, Ink slinger, Ink spiller, Quill driver, wordsmith, word purveyor and my favorite, penny-a-liner. But no matter how many dictionaries, synonym finders, or thesaurus you peruse there is something missing from all of these definitions–
Tenacity.
The ‘try to get a squeaky toy’ from a bull dog kind of tenacity, or the tenacity of a 3-year old who wants a cookie an hour before dinner. As writers, when the rejections start coming, we need to have the same resolve, and determination. The tenacity of that bulldog and keep submitting. We need to have faith in/and learn to hone our own talent. Everyone has finger prints . . . but that is where the similarity ends. Our writing voice is as unique as our fingerprints. Don’t give up. Hang onto that squeaky toy with all you’ve got, because who knows? Maybe a character you create, whether it’s today, tomorrow, next week or ten years from now could be the next Harry Potter.
Did you know that 90% of all published, manuscripts have been submitted more than three times?
Did you know that at the electronic publishing of Wings Press the editors send back a quarter’s worth of the manuscripts they receive with a please revise and resubmit letters, but very seldom do they get a book sent back. Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind had been rejected by 25 publishers. Mary Higgins Clark was rejected 40 times before she sold her first book. She now has more than 40 million books in print.
Louis L’Amor received 350 rejections before he made his first sale. He went on to write over 100 western novels. A few days before Louis died in 1988, he was notified that the sales of his books had topped 200 million. In the many years since his death, another 60 million copies of his books have been sold. What if Louis hadn’t had the tenacity to submit and face rejection for 260th time?
Stephen King’s first novel length manuscript was rejected 38 times. The story goes, he threw the manuscript into the trash by his desk. His wife, Tabitha retrieved the book and sent it out once more. That manuscript became Carrie.
The pastor of my church teaches frequently on the perseverance and he always says in order to persevere you have to have mindset of “it’s my bat and my ball I’m going to play until I win.” That’s the kind of perseverance, or tenacity we need to develop when it comes to submitting our writing.
Grab onto your dream with both hands and teeth, if need be–don’t give up. Don’t quit and have that bull dog tenacity believing in your talent!
Barb, HWG President
