Index > Inspirational Lemons

Inspirational Lemons

You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you’re working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success – but only if you persist. – Isaac Asimov

Quotes like that tend to inspire and energize. But, if you’re like me, there are times you just want to throttle the author for their optimism. Sometimes, you don’t want to hear “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”

Because sometimes, when life gives you lemons, you’re out of sugar.

But wait! That’s not very uplifting and inspirational! True, but the thing is, we all experience hardship, and each one of us handles difficulty differently. We aren’t all “glass half full” people, but even those who are (like me,) must at some point face situations that make us wonder why our glass is suddenly empty.

I am like most writers – I started writing as a child. At first, I wrote for myself. Then for friends. Then, eventually, for publication. I experienced highs and lows – rejections, contest wins, harsh criticism, the occasional non-fiction sale. But the fiction sale eluded me for years. I grew frustrated, heartbroken, and even, sometimes, bitter.

But finally, I got an editorial nibble with a manuscript submitted to Mills and Boon, where the editors liked it enough to request revisions. Then came another round of revisions. And line edits! This was IT! I just knew it. I worked my butt off to make that book perfect, and I sent it back to M&B in July of 2005.

In August of that same year, my life was turned upside-down by hurricane Katrina. I lost my house, most of my possessions, and several manuscripts that I hadn’t downloaded before evacuation. It was a devastating blow and the beginning of a nightmare that, to this day, has not ended.

To make matters worse, one week after the hurricane, while ripping out the walls of my soggy, moldy house, I found out that my revised story had been rejected. Had that rejection come at ANY other time in my life, it would have killed me. As it was, I felt nothing. In comparison to what I and hundreds of thousands of others were going through, a rejection was about as upsetting as a mosquito bite.

Homeless and frightened for the future, my son and I moved 3,000 miles away from my husband (who had to stay in Mississippi for his Coast Guard job) to live with my parents. Every day brought new nightmares from FEMA, the insurance companies, the Coast Guard. I battled depression, hopelessness, and helplessness when I watched how my son had been affected by our turn of luck.

And to top it all, I’d lost the will to write. The rejection didn’t hurt, but it did shatter my confidence.

Just as I was about to give up, I received a package from an author I admire and respect, an author whose obstacles gave her a unique perspective on writing through hardships. She inspired me, brought me back to a place where finally my critique partners could get through to me – my critique partners who had also known their share of hardships, and yet, they kept writing. I knew I had to start submitting again.

My first post-Katrina submission resulted in a rejection, but I’d also discovered that my experiences had made me stronger and less intimidated by the submission process. My critique partners and writing friends encouraged me, picked me up when I was down, and gave me good, solid kicks in the butt when I needed them.

When times got rough, when the insurance companies gave us the run-around and FEMA was telling us to wait, when I missed my husband so much it hurt, I thought about authors who had been through worse, yet they persevered. So I dusted off rejected manuscripts, revised them, and sent them out again. I joined Jo Leigh’s uber-challenge group and made a goal to improve my writing weaknesses. I plotted. I wrote new material. And I queried agents.

And finally, at the time I needed good news most, the persistence paid off. I got The Call.

There were times I wanted to give up, when I was on the very verge. But thanks to stubborn friends, pushy critique partners (said with love, and they know it,) the writing community, and my supportive family, I kept submitting, and I got my sale.

Sometimes life sucks. There’s no other way to put it. Cry, scream, and give yourself permission to mope. And when you’re done, get back to writing. Take it one word at a time.

You can take from every experience what it has to offer you. And you cannot be defeated if you just keep taking one breath followed by another. – Oprah Winfrey.

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