Writing
Anne Lamott says in her writing tips book Bird by Bird, to get moving, not to get hung up on “shitty first drafts.”
But what if all your drafts are shitty? What if after you “kill your darlings” and not-so-pet words, after you stab and stroke and massage your sentences it’s still shitty?
Start again. Rebound.
There exists an inexhaustible list of words for the essential trait of propulsion towards our goals as preached by motivational speakers:
Stick-to—it-tiveness
Persistence
Determination
Unshakeable, unstoppable, irrepressible…
But, the mental gyrations to enjoy a life of writing are exhausting. Sure, I'm being melodramatic, but it's true. The only solution is to decide how you’d feel if you stopped writing and submitting, if the rejection, fear of failure or acceptance of mediocrity -- won.
In my experience, the pang of disappointment from a life getting dusty on the shelf is more oppressive than failed attempts. Read more...
That's it Lynnette. It's sort of like parenting. Your faith in the unseen has to keep alive. You must know your completed "draft" is progressing, (your grown child) and so by inches you keep on without proof.
It IS the persistence that counts. As writers we have to figure out (practically day by day) how to "keep the faith," how to believe what we're doing is worthwhile and will get better with practice, that our writing will get stronger, and that each successive draft will offer proof positive that we (and our manuscripts) are moving forward.