Good Advice For Writers

The poster for today can be applied to writers who tend to dwell on the rejections they've received or poor reviews on a book. It's aimed at the ones who have been chastised by an editor or ridiculed by non-writer friends who have little understanding of what the writing life is like. It's for the writers who beat themselves up over past writing, wishing it could have been done over.

Perhaps it is also good advice for all writers. What happened yesterday or last week or last year or ten years ago is beyond our reach as far as changing what occurred. How many times have we all thought If only I hadn't said (done)(written) that! 

Whatever happened cannot be forgotten either. We all have little compartments in our memory bank that hold the things we wish we hadn't said or done. Our minds will not allow us to forget what happened. What if you wrote something without checking your facts and you were called on it by a reader? You are never going to forget it. Nor should you. I look at those occurrences as a learning situation. Not an easy lesson, but a lesson, nevertheless.

We also cannot edit what happened anytime before today. Oh, if only there was a delete button in our past writing journey. There are bumps in the road that we'd be happy to edit or erase completely. We can tell ourself that it was never there but that's only fooling the one who knows best--us.

So, what is left? Acceptance. It's the right thing to do but it is definitely not the easiest path to take. I have learned that accepting whatever negative came into my writing life is a way for me to continue on the learning curve and for me to move on to something new without agonizing over the past. You can worry yourself to a frazzle. Accept and take the next step in your writing journey. 

Perhaps we should not only accept but be thankful that the past is over and we move into the future once we embrace acceptance. Not always easy but something to work on, little by little.