If this blog entry reads like an online journal, so be it.
In spite of having a super-supportive writing group and people around me who believe in my work, the writing biz is frequently just one writer (and their battered ego) against the world.
The stories go out. The stories come back. No explanation is given. At times the “gatekeepers,” guardians of quality writing, seem more like archers indiscriminately shooting anyone who gets near the gates without asking questions first. Friend or foe!
Just over 3 years ago, I made my first (and so far, only) professional fiction sale. Since then, I’ve been battered by a near-constant meteor shower of rejections. The shields are failing. The net result can be a cataclysmic collapse of confidence (CCC for short).
A CCC can trigger a lot of questions: Is there a place for my voice out there somewhere? Do all these rejections mean that I don’t have any talent? At what point does it make sense to give up? Have I passed that point already?
Being an author has been an ambition of mine for most of my life. When it came to accomplishing that goal, though, it was more like a hobby I picked up and put down multiple times over the years. No Octavia Butler was I, scribbling my ambitious goals in the notebooks of my youth.
It would be far more realistic to consider myself an advanced beginner, taking into consideration the stops and starts in my quest for the elusive 10,000 hours. All I can do is accept that there will be difficult days, and take comfort that authors through the ages have been rejected for more times than I have.
Anyone out there have any words of comfort? Any suggestions for some motivational reading/viewing?
A lifetime of creativity 
My good man Bradley – Keep the faith. Instead of asking whether your writing is ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ ask what message do I want to share with the world? In these stories are you going to the deepest emotional level that touches our souls as the readers? Stories that make me cry or rejoice I always remember and they affect how I view the world. Write those stories because they have to be told. And that’s all that matters.