On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In a recent post on the Writer Unboxed blog, award-winning author Greer Macallister shared advice on accepting rejection. Here’s an excerpt from that post:

If you don’t learn to accept rejection gracefully early in your writing career, you’ll end up fighting a lot of unnecessary battles later. Which is bad for you on many different fronts.

Because while there are some battles worth fighting in publishing–fight for the right editor, for marketing, for the right cover and title–there are a lot more that you can only win by not fighting at all.

Editor doesn’t want your book? Accept it. A major bookstore isn’t stocking it? Accept it. Your friend’s book seems to be getting all the book clubs and TV options and buzzy-buzzy Most Anticipated coverage? Accept it, and wish them well. Bad Goodreads reviews? Accept them and move on (or don’t read them at all.)

Does this bent toward acceptance fly in the face of the wisdom that persistence is the writer’s most important trait? I’ve thought about it, and I don’t think so.

Persistence, after all, is not just pushing forward. It involves flexibility. Adaptation. Persistence doesn’t mean you send your first manuscript to 100 agents, and then another 100, then another 100. It means you query widely to agents you’ve researched, take a look at the responses, and decide how to move forward from there. Maybe you edit that first manuscript, or maybe you write a different one. Folded into that process is acceptance. You explore, you try, you fail, you accept, you adapt, you try again, and if everything comes together just right, you succeed.

You can read the rest of the post here.

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In a recent post on the Writer Unboxed blog, author Jeanne Kisacky shared advice on accepting and processing criticism. Here’s an excerpt from that post:

When you receive the critique, don’t just dive in as soon as you get it. Set aside a quiet chunk of time, sufficient to get through all the critique in one session (if possible), and then just read the comments. You will feel emotions while you read the reviewer’s responses; some positive, but many possible negative ones as well. I have been angry, delighted, depressed, affronted, despondent, entertained, even incensed after reading criticism. It’s normal. Criticism is hard to take. Tackling edits while in the thrall of that emotional response is a great way to get off track and subvert the tone of the writing.

Once you’re done reading the comments, set them aside and do something, anything, other than re-reading your draft or trying to start revising. Go for a walk. Do the dishes. Do some gardening. Do whatever activity lets your mind wander. Do this for a day or two, or for as long as it takes for your brain to process the criticism. Let the criticism sink in, let it percolate. This breathing space lets you weigh what you wanted the book to be against what you just found out wasn’t working. It also gives you the chance to refine your own understanding of your work, so that you don’t lose the heart and soul of it while revising based on someone else’s comments. In my experience, if you jump right into revisions, chances are you are going to go some wrong directions, because you need the time to internalize their comments and figure out how to fix the stated problem your way, not their way.

You can read the rest of the blog post here.

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

A long-time fan of bestselling authors and coaches Marc and Angel Chernoff, I look forward to reading their emails and blog posts. Here’s an excerpt from a recent post:

When I was a high school freshman, a 260-pound freshman girl showed up for track and field tryouts right alongside me. Her name was Sara, and she was only there because her doctor said her health depended on it. But once she scanned the crowd of students who were on the field, she turned around and began walking away. Coach O’Leary saw her, jogged over, and turned her back around.

“I’m not thin enough for this sport!” Sara declared. “And I’ll never be! It’s impossible for me to lose enough weight. I’ve tried.”

Coach O’Leary nodded and promised Sara that her body type wasn’t suited for her current weight. “It’s suited for 220 pounds,” he said.

Sara looked confused. “Most people tell me I need to lose 130 pounds,” she replied. “But you think I only need to lose 40?”

Coach O’Leary nodded again.

Sara started off as a shot-put competitor, but spent every single afternoon running and training with the rest of the track team. She was very competitive, and by the end of our freshman year she was down to 219 pounds. She also won 2nd place in the countywide shot-put tournament that year. Three years later, during our senior year, she won 3rd place in the 10K county run. Her competitive weight at the time was 132 pounds.

There was a time when Sara was convinced that it was impossible to lose weight because, in her past experience, it had never worked out the way she had hoped. She had failed a few times and eventually lost faith in herself. But with consistency — with the right daily habits and willingness to try again — she restored her faith and achieved the “impossible.” And when Sara showed up to my poolside birthday party in Miami recently, I smiled when I overheard another guest compliment her on her bathing suit and physique.

Of course, Sara still works really hard — she chooses wisely — every single day to maintain what she has achieved.

And, so do I…

Note: I highly recommend subscribing to Marc & Angel’s website.

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In a recent Writer Unboxed blog post, author Harper Ross shared the following advice on how to weather the emotional ups and downs of the writing life:

There’s a Japanese art called kintsugi where broken pottery is repaired using gold. The cracks aren’t hidden. They’re highlighted, honored, and made beautiful. That’s a lovely way to think of the writing life. It’s not about being unbreakable. It’s about letting your setbacks become part of the story… and then getting back to work with a little more sparkle in your seams.

Here’s what that looks like for me.

Rejection

It’s inevitable that, at some point in your career, you’ll face less-than-glowing beta or critique feedback, unanswered queries, and page requests that result in polite rejections. Each one lands differently, but every rejection stings.

My process for overcoming defeat? I grieve. For an hour, a day, or even a week, depending on the weight of the blow. Then I remind myself: this is one person’s opinion, not a universal verdict. With distance, rejection becomes what it really is—data. Sometimes useful, sometimes not. Always temporary.

I also try to reframe things by empathizing with agents and editors: of all the books I’ve read, how many would I bet my career on? Maybe forty. And yet, I’ve loved hundreds more. That’s how subjective this business is. Somewhere out there, your future reader is waiting for exactly the story only you can tell.

So, I dust off my ego and write anyway. Because my voice matters—even when some people don’t hear it yet.

Jealousy

Nothing quite matches the ache of seeing someone else get what you want. The deal. The review. The spotlight. I’ve felt it. I’m not proud—but I’m not ashamed, either.

Jealousy is just information. It reveals what you hunger for. If you can resist letting it fester into bitterness, you can use it to clarify your goals and fuel your next step. Envy, repurposed, becomes motivation.

Waiting

Nobody tells you how much of this “author’s life” is just…waiting. For responses. For edits. For launch dates. For signs from the universe.

Coming up in this industry during the age of instant everything, I find myself acting like a flustered teen when confronted by even a mild delay in getting a response. To combat my impatience, I’ve started to rebrand those lulls as bonus hours. That simple mental shift motivates me to walk the dog, call a friend, bake cookies, or binge-watch something ridiculous and delightful. Not only do those activities make the waiting bearable—they also refill the creative well. That last part is critical for the hard work of writing the next chapter or next idea.

Creative Drain

Creativity isn’t a faucet you turn on and off on a whim. It’s a fragile ecosystem—and publishing can be a storm. To protect it, you need boundaries.

If a negative review sends you into a days-long negative spiral, avoid checking your book’s Goodreads page. If each political volley reported in your Bluesky feed sends you hiding beneath the covers, limit exposure to social media with apps like Freedom. Stuck in a story rut? Write nonsense scenes just for fun. The best antidote to burnout isn’t a new productivity hack—it’s joy.

Community

I’ve written before about the power of community, but it bears repeating: I wouldn’t still be here without my writing friends. The ones who cheer the wins, sit with the losses, and read the messy drafts without judgment.

Find your people. Writing may be solitary, but survival is not.

If you’re in that murky middle—rejected, exhausted, or just plain stuck—you’re not failing. You’re feeling. You’re human. And you’re still here. Hopefully, some of these tips will keep you going!

Source: Writing Unboxed

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In a recent post on the Writer Unboxed blog, award-winning author Julie Carrick Dalton shared several examples of creative cross-pollination. Here’s an excerpt from that post:

I’ve always admired writers who abide by the butt-in-chair ethos. You know who I’m talking about, the writers who get up every day at 5 am, or who dedicate themselves to a regular writing practice that sustains them.

But this article is for the rest of us, all of us other writers who can’t always adhere to a regular writing discipline, because we crave creativity in other places – in the kitchen, art studio, dance floor, or garden.

Consider this your creative hall pass: step away from the laptop, embrace your other passions, and know that every pursuit—whether it’s painting, dancing, or growing herbs—can supercharge your writing and nourish your spirit.

I spend a lot of time in my garden where I grow dozens of herbs, flowers, and fruits that I harvest, dehydrate, and blend into teas. Some of my best writing ideas arrive when I’m elbow-deep in chamomile, or when I’m blending up the perfect balance of mint, lemon balm, lemon verbena, and bee balm to settle a loved one’s upset stomach.

I often indulge my tea-blending hobby when I’m having a tough time writing. I used to think of it as a distraction, a form of procrastination—but I’ve decided to reframe it as creative cross-pollination. Sometimes, the boldest move for our writing is a strategic retreat—leaning into a new kind of making, so ideas can sprout in unexpected places.

Read the rest of the post here.