There are many talented writers out there who may have enough skill to be counted among the best, but are doomed to languish in obscurity because they lack one key characteristic: confidence.
It usually doesn’t matter how good your writing is if you’re not going to publish your work, or send it out to publishing houses because you’re afraid that it’s not good enough. Confidence is frequently the final barrier to entry when it comes to the publishing world. If you don’t want to fall into the same pit, here are 5 things confident writers never do:
1. Take Things Personally
You won’t find any successful writer who hasn’t received a rejection yet. All writers will get a rejection eventually so don’t take it personally. Even the best writers will have to deal with revisions and outright rejections because there is always room for improvement. Most importantly, don’t ever think that the editor is specifically out to get you. No editor cares about you personally. What he or she wants is to help you produce the best output, because that’s what the individual’s paid to do. Additionally, rejections are not always a reflection of quality. They are always a business decision. Even if you have a great pitch or a well-written draft, it’s going to get rejected if it doesn’t fit in with the publication’s theme, or if they already have something similar in the pipeline. It’s never about your worth as a human being, so dust yourself off and try again.
2. Be Negative
We’re not talking about writing exclusively about positive topics – there is always room for written works that deal in negativities – whether it’s to shine a spotlight on an issue that needs addressing or to confront a problem. What we’re talking about is writing for the purpose of something negative. Don’t believe the myth that writing endless pages of rants and diatribes will help get it “out of your system.” The truth is that doing so reaffirms your negative feelings and takes you even further down the spiral. You can rant from time to time, but don’t let every single one of your works be a complaint or a rant about a person, a group or institution. Be more positive.
3. Treat Other Writers as Competition
If you start writing negative reviews or scathing criticisms of other writers because you see them as competition, it will tell other people more about you than the writers you are trying to put down. They will see you as petty, envious, and someone to avoid (unless they’re the kind of sycophants that writers want to avoid in the first place). If you want to provide constructive criticism, you can do it privately without dragging another writer’s name through the mud. In fact, you might want to offer it first before sending your criticisms out of the blue. These other writers should not be seen as competitors; rather they should be treated colleagues and collaborators, especially now that the Internet has made the world a significantly smaller place.
4. Ignore Criticism or Respond with a Knee-Jerk
On the other hand, when you’re on the receiving end of a constructive criticism, you should pay attention. A confident writer knows his limits and accepts the fact that he can still improve. The criticism might be valid or it might be completely false, but you owe it to yourself to at least check it out. It won’t take much of your time to read anyway. Most of all, don’t ever respond with a knee-jerk reaction. Most of the people who provide constructive criticism do so with the intent to help. If you react negatively, you might end up creating enemies in the industry.
5. Expect Perfection
Lastly, really confident writers don’t expect perfection at the outset, whether from themselves or from the industry. The publishing industry is built upon the principle of taking something that’s imperfect and whittling it down to perfection. If you expect everything to work right off the gates, you’ll be greeted by a lot of disappointments. So when you write something, don’t ever forget that there is always room for improvement.
Image credit: Son of Groucho on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0
Hiten Vyas is the Founder and Managing Editor of eBooks India. He is also a prolific eBook writer with over 25 titles to his name.