Feel the Fear and Send it Anyway

If you are paralyzed by fear when you even think of submitting or even showing someone your manuscript, you're not the first to feel this way. Singer Nick Cave says he is "besieged by self doubt" when he isn't writing songs, despite his critically acclaimed albums and large fan base.

Even those who are confident in other areas can be completely floored in this situation. So why is our self-esteem so fragile when it comes to exposing our creative work? Why do we take criticism like someone has dug a knife deep into our chest?

Fiction writers often write from their own experiences, and incorporate their own emotions. You could say they write from within. In any case, creativity is a very personal part of the individual. So when a creative work is criticized, it is easily taken personally.

But there are ways we can cope with this.

1. Make sure you are prepared for both good and bad outcomes. If you can imagine the worst outcome and know how to deal with it, it will have less of an effect.

2. Work out what you can do if your work is rejected. Have a list of the next options/steps. This way you can move on quickly, rather than be paralyzed by perceived failure.

3. Be prepared to look at criticism in a positive light. There's always room for improvement. If possible get feedback from the person who rejected your novel. If not, try to work out how to improve your work.

4. Remind yourself of the following: You can't control the situation. It might not be a straight down the line case of bad work equals rejection. Consider that you can't know what mood the reviewer was in when they read/rejected your work. Also, they could reject it for a number of reasons - perhaps they had too many submissions to deal with; or their business is doing badly; or the like.

5. Care less about what others think about you. Base your self-love on your own evaluation of self and work on yourself from there. (Okay, so this is easier said than done!)

6. Enjoy writing as a process. Any writer will tell you that just being creative is an amazing feeling. Base that feeling on writing, not on validation by others.

7. Try not to define yourself by your novel or getting published. Then if your work is rejected you won't feel like a failure as an individual. Make sure you have balance. Personal expression shouldn't be restricted to your creative work. Express yourself with your family, relationship, home, children, hobbies, religion. Life is full of amazing facets - fill yours with the innumerable possibilities of life.

No matter what happens. To face your fear makes you stronger. So the next time you submit a manuscript it will be easier. Plus there's an added bonus - the lack of fear will seep into other areas of your life.

So just do it! Afterall, as Greek cynic philosopher Diogenes says: "nothing can be produced out of nothing." And Elbert Herbert, the 16th Century American writer: "To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing."

Suzanne Male is the Publisher of Smink Works Books.


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© Copyright Smink Works Books 2005


> Read Katherine Wilson's article about Surviving Rejection