Writers--Sail Your Boat Into the Harbor of Hope

Those who read this blog regularly know that the two keywords in my writing world are Patience and Perseverance. Today, I'd like to add one more. Hope

Anyone who wants to succeed in the writing world must have an expectation of good things to come. They have to sail their boat into the harbor of hope. Without hope for positive happenings in our writing, why bother continuing? I fear we'd feel defeated before we got started.

It's hope that makes us continue writing. It's hope that spurs us to submit our work for publication. It's hope that lifts us up when we receive a rejection. Maybe the next editor will accept this submission we tell ourselves. I've lost count of the number of times I've said this to myself. 

Writers fall into two categories--the negative ones and the positive ones. Which group do you think holds on to hope? To be hopeful, you need a positive attitude. Those who live day to day with a negative attitude tend to pull themselves down farther and farther and grasping hope becomes more and more difficult.

You've heard people who say Man, she needs an attitude adjustment! An easy solution perhaps for the person making the comment. But those who tend to live in the negatives of life can't just turn it off with a switch. It takes time and working at it before there can be an adjustment of attitude. 

How can you go about changing from a negative person to a positive one? To start with, whenever a situation comes up, ask yourself what a negative person might do or say and then what the positive person would do or say. Stand back and look at both objectively. Which one is more appealing? Can you move from one side to another? You can if you have the desire and the will to continue working at it. Will it happen overnight? No. But you can use a dose of that Patience and Perseverance to help you, 

Writers need hope to:

1. continue growing as a writer

2. keep on submitting work that has already been rejected

3. inspire them to write regularly

4. stay a positive person

5. stay on their writing path