I love writing. Its my escape, my obsession. But I have to admit, that sometimes this business is so hard. So full of disappointment. And if there’s one thing you can counting on with this business is the doubt.

• What if your CP hates your new book?
• What if your dream agent doesn’t think your writing is good enough to even request a partial? Or worse yet, reads it and hates it?
• What if you don’t sell the book you spent months of your life writing?
• What if your book DOES sell and people hate it?

What do you do then? How do you deal with those things? I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately as I see myself, my crit partners, my friends all deal with different types of disappointment. And the one thing that seems to be consistent with all of us is that while we may get knocked down and spend that time being sad or letting the disappointment overwhelm us, somehow at the end of the day (or week or month or year) we pick ourselves back up and start over.

Don’t get me wrong, putting it like that makes it sound easy. And there are times I think when all of us wonder if we’re cut out for this, if we should even bother to keep going.  It would be so much easier to just stop, to pick up knitting or go back to being just a reader. But there is something about writers, some stubborn streak that forces us to finally push aside the disappointments, put on our armor and go back out to battle those demons of disappointment.

Something that makes us strong enough to stare that disappointment in the eye and tell it to frak off. That we’re going to do it our way. That we’re going to succeed.

So for any of you out there disappointed with where you’re at right now, or a situation that doesn’t turn out like you expected, hang in there. You’re not alone. We’ve all been there and probably will keep visiting that murky swamp. But eventually the fog clears, and you spot a shining star on the horizon and you realize it’s going to be okay.

Because you’re strong, and brave, and amazing.