There is only one true answer to how a person can continue to be in the writing business: it is to keep working.
Keep working. Keep creating. Seek opportunity. When it comes calling, answer the phone, respond to the email, open the doors.
The frustrating days are sometimes worth it. Build on them. Move on and feel armed with new information from those experiences. Keep rejection notes as a way to build confidence in work.
Create something for the sake of writing something. Write a single word in really large printing on a notebook.
If you haven’t laughed in a while, find something funny and then write about why that particular thing is funny. I have learned much about the healing power of humor in the last few years.
Keep connecting with other writers. Respond with feedback on something they have written. Even if they do not respond back it is an exercise in writing all by itself. Many writers are now taking more time to respond to reader feedback. Being able to have an audience is one thing, keeping that audience is a whole other challenge.
Look at your health and be mindful of it. I spent most of my teens and early twenties eating a steady diet of junk food and drinking buckets of soda drinks every single day. Being cranked out on sugar and junk food is not healthy to begin with. I feel that healthier living has helped improved my productivity and the quality of my work.
I have watched many talented people pursue this business with an intensive passion only to give up and walk away after a single disappointment. I refuse to fall into that mentality.
So I say to you if you are struggling. Keep going. It is worth it.
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Originally published on Dann Alexander
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