Writers Who Worry

We send in a submission for publication or to a contest, and then comes the long wait. Some publications give an indication of how long it will be until you hear something from them--either yay or nay. Some give no timetable whatsoever. Some never respond unless they want to publish your work. Worrisome!

Contests most often state when the winners will be announced. That is less of a concern than submitting for publication. Sometimes, it's still a long time from entry to finding out if you placed or not. My state authors club contest has a submission deadline of June 15th. Winners are announced in early October at the state convention. Meanwhile, those who enter cannot submit the same piece for publication. The rule is that whatever was entered cannot be published prior to the winners being revealed. Technically, you can submit to an editor, but if they want to publish, can you say, "That's great, but you can't publish until after October." That's rather hard to do. At that point, you'd need to decide whether to withdraw your contest entry and accept the publication offer or nix it and leave the contest entry. I find it's better to not enter a contest and send the same piece out for publication possibilities. It's not going to happen often, but if it does, you have a problem to work out.

All of the above is leading up to today's topic. Writers who worry. It's the human part of us that causes us to worry about our writing ability, the long waits we endure to hear from an editor or contest manager, and the reviews or the readers we attract. We question ourself on various parts of our writing life. We fret, voice concern, and just plain worry. I doubt there is any writer who has not spent some time worrying about various facets of the writing journey. 

The bigger question is why do you worry and how much do you worry? Today's poster above gives the best advice for this problem. The biggest thing is that worrying changes absolutely nothing. It also hurts no one but yourself. Your sleep can suffer. You can lose the joy in other parts of your life by letting worry take over. You usually have little or no control over the thing you're worried about.

Is there a solution? You hold the key. No one else can do this for you. One thing you must learn to do is have faith in yourself as a writer. You must come to a point where you believe in your writing ability. Be willing to admit that not everything you submit is going to get published (or win a contest). There's nothing wrong with giving yourself a mental pep talk. Accentuate the positives in your writing life. 

If you're a beginning writer, finding those positives might be a little harder. Even so, try to consider the positives rather than the negatives. The latter will only add to your worry. What do you like about your writing? Dwell on that rather than the parts you hate. And know this--all writers hate some things about their writing, but they also have areas that are very satisfying. 

I've learned to take the attitude that, if something is meant to happen, it will. If I get a rejection, there is usually a good reason for it. The fault could easily lie in me, not that dumb editor who didn't want to publish the piece I sent in good faith. Most of the time, I don't worry. Remember that popular song of many decades ago titled Que sera, sera? The loose translation is Whatever will be, will be. No amount of worry in the world can change what happens.

Instead of wasting time worrying, work at being the best writer you can be. The more success you have, the less there will be to worry about.