The poster above sounds like something your mother might have said during one of the Mama Lectures she gave you in your growing up years. A little sharp, a bit caustic, but good advice.
It works for writers, too. If you aren't happy with where you are at on your writer's journey. maybe it's time to take a few steps back and assess your writing life. Then, try the following:
1. Ask yourself why you don't like your writing life at the present time
2. Make an honest assessment of what you've been doing and why it isn't working
3. List the things you can try in order to change the situation
4. Do the items on your list, one at a time
Let's take a fictitious writer as one example. After many rejections at many places, Willa Writer sold a story to a small print magazine which thrilled her. It also inspired her to send more of her work to them, and they bought a few more subs from her. She was so happy that she stopped submitting to other places, the fear of rejection bubbling deep down inside. Better to stay with the one place where she'd found some success. She'd made a choice. But she painted herself into a corner by doing this. Eventually, she grew bored with writing the same kind of story for the same publication.
Willa knew why she didn't like her writing life as it was. She stepped back and made an honest assessment. Then she made her list of things she could do. At the top was Look for other markets. She added others to her list, and the next day, she started to work on them, one by one.
There are lots of other reasons a writer gets dissatisfied with their writing life. Willa's problem is only one of many that may be encountered on your journey. You're the one in control here. It's you who can either stay where you're at or move on to newer, bigger and maybe better things. Go for it!
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