by Ane Mulligan  @AneMulligan

According to a song lyric by Linda Rondeau:

Home, home in the industry

Where the writers and publishers play

Where seldom is heard

An encouraging word

And the skies are so cloudy all day.

Thanks, Linda for letting me borrow the lyric. Yes, I’ve experienced discouragement in my writing journey. Maybe it was a rejection, or comments from a contest judge, but they threw ice cubes on my dreams.

But I soon realized grousing was not getting me anywhere and definitely not published. Even in today’s world where self-publishing is available to authors, you have to be sure your work is good. If it isn’t, you won’t sell more than a couple dozen books. If your goal is to have your name on a book, fine. But if you want a career in writing, publishing quality books people want to read is the goal. And to reach it, you have to develop rhino skin.

I quickly learned the best thing to do is kick a cabinet or two then pull up your big girl britches, tone my rhino skin, and get over it. The thing is I’ve never wanted to be told my work is wonderful if it isn’t. How mortifying would that be? And how untruthful by the teller.

Iron sharpens iron.

I was blessed to find critique partners who love me enough to push me hard. We can’t get our feelings hurt if we’re told something doesn’t work—not if we’re serious about publishing.

If you’re serious about writing, then you refuse discouragement. Turn your back on it because it doesn’t come from God.

Now, before y’all string me up, I realize new writers are more sensitive than the veterans. But to get ahead, you have to be one of the best. So, here’s my advice. When you get discouraged, follow these steps:

1. Set the critiques or judge’s comments aside for 3 days.
2. Kick a few cabinets.
3. On the 4th day, take what profits your work and learn from it.
4. Make Mardi Gras confetti out of the rest.

On the other side, if you’re a critique partner or a contest judge, use care with your words. Be sure you are critiquing the work not the writer. You can be tough and still deliver it with a gentle, encouraging hand.

Proverbs 12:25 says “…an encouraging word cheers a person up.” And that great theologian Mary Poppins said, “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.” It’s all in the manner the critique is delivered. Don’t soften wise counsel but deliver it with a loving heart.

Finally, if you’re struggling with a sensitive spirit, read Proverbs through once with your writing career as the focus. Substitute the word “father” or “mother” with “critique partner” and “judge.” Wow! What an eye-opener.

Ane Mulligan lives life from a director’s chair, both in theatre and at her desk, creating novels. Entranced with story by age three, at five, she saw PETER PAN onstage and was struck with a fever from which she never recovered—stage fever. One day, her passions collided, and an award-winning, bestselling novelist emerged. She believes chocolate and coffee are two of the four major food groups and lives in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband and a rascally Rottweiler. Find Ane on her website, Amazon Author page, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, The Write Conversation, and Blue Ridge Conference Blog.