Recently, I had one of those moments writers dream of. An agent read some of my writing samples on my blog and requested a partial.
Awesome, right? AMAZING! I was stunned and surprised (and let this be a guide for everyone hoping to draw attention to their work, two tips - 1. MAKE SURE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IS ON YOUR BLOG and 2. TAG your teasers!) and then moments later, the elation turned to that most evil of all emotions - DOUBT.
I won't get into what those doubts were, they were the standard fare that I'm sure you can come up with on your own. What I doubted is not the point. The point is that in a moment that should've felt like validation, I was personally invalidating myself.
The important thing is that I realized I was doing it. And 90% of solving a problem is figuring out what that problem is. (Okay I just made that up, it could be like, 78%.) Knowing I was having an irrational reaction helped to tone that reaction down and keep it from overwhelming me and convincing me that before I send anything I need to say, rewrite my entire book in the 3rd Person POV of a snail, and remove all instances of the word "the".
So what to do about doubt? I don't think it will ever go away. It's like the weather. Sometimes it has to rain, but you can prepare for it, and you can know it's not going to rain forever. If you're serious about being the best writer you can be, and creating the best work, then you will have moments of doubt. Even Mother Teresa questioned her faith!
Just make sure that when those moments come you recognize them for what they are - your desire to be your best - take a deep breath and don't email or delete anything until you've calmed down!
Oh, dude, the doubt never goes away. It only becomes bigger, stronger. What if they were joking when they offered? What if I dreamed that conversation? What if they publish my book and everyone hates it? It's all rooted in doubt, and it never dies. The best you can do is silence it for a while. :)
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your submission!
*Running off to make sure my teasers are tagged.*
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the submission. :D
Elana - I think that's the problem with being creative. We can always come up with another potential failure scenario!
ReplyDeleteLacey - seriously, I never even thought about the tagging, I just did it to do it, but it makes it easy to find all your samples at once!
Makes sense. I had them tagged as "Teaser Tuesday" and by the title of the WIP, but I don't think that would be easily recognizable. I worry that my teasers would actually turn a reader away, lol!
ReplyDeleteDoubt is normal - luckily you have fabulous critique partners to help you realize how wonderful you are :) Best of luck w/ your submission - my fingers are crossed for you.
ReplyDeleteI've never put teasers on the blog before - hmmmmm.