“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” – Alice Walker
Anybody besides me finding incredible power in that statement? Holy moly.
Writer Power!
Here’s where I see our power:
- Writing the best story possible. We have power over our story when we are writing and revising it.
- Revising based on feedback. We have power over what feedback we accept and how we revise our manuscripts based on that feedback.
- Doing our market research. We have power over the market research we do to target the right publishers/agents to the best of our knowledge and ability. If we have an agent, we’re still doing research and taking responsibility for the publishers s/he targets and offering thoughts and suggestions with regards to target markets.
- Choosing to see it as a business. We have the power to choose how we respond (not react) to what comes our way regarding submissions. We can wallow in a pass or recognize the manuscript is not a good fit for whatever reason and move on—submission-wise and emotion-wise. We don’t want our story with someone who doesn’t love it as much as we do. We have the choice.
Once we’re in the submission phase, we can often feel like things are out of our control, that our career and success are up to “them.”
But really, that’s BS. There is no “them.” There are only people doing their jobs to the best of their ability and making decisions based on their own market research and instincts.
And there is “us”–people working at what we love, claiming our power to write, revise, do our market research and choosing to walk through the whole process with our eyes open and our confidence unwavering.
Claim your writing power!
