Overcome Discouragement

Give yourself positive messages when revising, understanding it’s easier to critique than to invent.

Understandably, you can become discouraged during writing, particularly when undertaking a challenging project. Even so, you cannot give in to negative thinking.

Six Tips to Avoid Being Discouraged

  1. Be realistic. Remember it’s much easier to criticize than invent. Every manuscript can be critiqued, even ones authored by major scholars and researchers.Don’t take criticism
    personally. Focus on the positive. 
  2. Don’t waste your time writing to editors and telling them why they were fools to reject your ideas. Instead, place your energies into moving forward. Either immediately revise the manuscript or send it back out for consideration elsewhere.
  3. Don’t accept everything you hear. Ignore the cranks. Like bad drivers, there are too many cranks for you to police.
  4. Be your own worst critic. No one will take your work as seriously as you do.
  5. Don’t try to critique your work at the last minute. This is impossible.
  6. When writing, don’t worry about criticism.