Never Give Up!

When I was 11 or 12 years old, I interviewed a young adult science fiction/fantasy writer, TA Barron. He told me the story about how he got 32 rejection letters for his writing before succeeding with his published Merlin book series. Here's an except of an interview he did with someone else where he talks about the inevitable experience of rejection whenever you want to get your writing/ideas/research/whatever out to an audience.

"What advice would you give to a young writer?

Three things: Notice the world around you. Live your life, follow your dreams. And practice writing as often as you can.
And then a fourth: Don’t take rejection letters to heart. Everyone gets them, even established writers. They hurt, but they are just part of life. If you have something to say, and refuse to give up, you absolutely will find a way to say it and share it with others."

I recently had this happen to me-- not 32 letters, but 6. On the 7th time submitting one of my research projects, it received an R&R (i.e. Revise and Resubmit)! Oh, joy!!!!! On this 3-year road of trying and trying again, last year I printed out this page from a journal's web site that said, "the research project is not complete until you get it out the door." I think Howard Becker said something similar. Now is the hard work of revising. But oh that I would celebrate and remember this as a marker of this new year!!

TA Barron -- as well as an army of encouraging others in my life -- were right!! Refuse to give up!