I received a small wooden block as a Christmas gift this past year. It is painted gray and has two words on it. Be positive. If ever there was a year when those words should be heeded, this past year plus of the pandemic is the one.
I put the little block on my kitchen windowsill as a reminder to look for the good in each day. I see it many times a day since the kitchen sink is oft visited by me. During the pandemic year, it was all too easy to get to feeling down or negative. Lockdowns, unemployment for many, masks, social distancing, stores closing, illness and death topping the news on a daily basis. Yes, we had to work at staying positive. Believe me, there were days when I could not feel very up, but then I'd work my way back to it. Why? Because I kenw it was better for me as a person to keep feeling positive.
As writers, we should work at being positive. It does take real work when things are not going as hoped, when rejections roll in one after the other, when it looks like publication is moving farther and farther away instead of being within reach. When negatives enter our life, it is not easy to pick up the positives. Some people prefer to clutch the negatives. It's probably easier than working at being positive.
If we want to experience some success in our writing world, we must accentuate the positive, just as an old song made popular by Bing Crosby tells us. The lyrics also tell us to 'eliminate the negative' which we must have strength to do. We can't just say the words. We have to work at it.
Little reminders like my small wooden block are helpful. Look at it often enough, and you might start believing it. Some people find meditation to be helpful. Why not give it a try and use those words--Be Positive--as your mantra? Eyes closed and repeating the words in your mind could be of some help.
If you start piling up the negatives in your writing world, you'll get bogged down pretty quickly. Once you dig that hole, it's not easy to climb out. The writer who receives multiple rejections in a row takes the attitude that they probably shouldn't bother submitting any longer. What's the use? Keep telling yourself that, and you start to believe it. I encourage writers to keep submitting. The day will come when one of your pieces will be accepted for publication.
Make a side-by-side list of the positves and the negatives in your writing life. Which one is longer? What can you do to stay on the positive side? It's worth pursuing the positive side in every way you can.
My little wooden block that helps me every day
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