Activities of Persistence--What Keeps Us Writing

The week my first novel was finally published, after nine years of hard work and rejections, I took a break to assess where I’d come and what brought me to this point.

I tracked back from a year before, when I got the acceptance call from my publisher. Then I tracked further, way back to the week I began writing the first parts of the novel. It happened nine years ago while vacationing at a lakeside cabin with friends.

I wanted to give myself the acknowledgement of such hard work. I don’t know that we do that very often. We’re propelled into marketing, riding the surge of excitement (and often anxiety) that accompanies a release. But I forced myself to disengage from that and reflect.

I listed my activities of persistence--what it took to finish it.

1. I hired two coaches

2. I went to five series of writing classes

3. I enrolled in two years of an MFA program

4. I joined three writers' groups

5. I wrote every day for many months

6. I found a great weekly writing partner

All this helped. But in the end, it got finished--and published--because of one small writing exercise, which I'll explain below.

Belief and Persistence

I've worked with thousands of book writers as an editor and coach. Many finish their books. Some don't. They are sometimes very talented writers with great stories to tell. Stopping mid-process puzzled me. But as I worked with more writers, I learned how persistence shapes creative work. How book writers need to keep going, even when the going is very tough.

I learned to value persistence and a healthy belief in oneself and one's creative expression. Unless you love your writing, who will?

This isn't to say you are ego-driven. You acknowledge what's not working as well as what is. But to constantly doubt, that's dangerous. That will lead to endless revising, endless questioning, and not holding your published book in your hands.

Belief Boosting

About two years before that first novel was published, I was walking back from morning workshopping session with a fellow MFA student. The feedback that day was beyond discouraging about this novel manuscript. I valued the comments but it left me stunned and rather hopeless that day.

"I'll never finish this," I told my friend. I was quite certain. "I'm not meant to. I don't have it in me."

"Nonsense," she said. "You'll finish and you'll publish. It's a good story. It just needs your love." She gave me the exercise I’m sharing with you today.

She told me to go back to my dorm room and start a list of anything I liked about the book so far. Keep the ongoing list in my writing notebook. Add to it, look at it as a reminder. Like a Valentine card to my emerging creative work, it would help me remember to love it.

Here's what I wrote that day:

Molly (the main character)

Zoe (her best friend)

when they first meet at the Boat House (the local dive)

Chad's glasses

the still life painting

how Molly felt driving the motorboat that morning

the lake at sunrise

This exercise reversed my discouragement. I went back to work. I regained my persistence and belief. Since that day, I added to my list as I learned more about my book and fell in love with it again.

Your Weekly Writing Exercise

Start a list about your writing.

Here are some prompts:

1. What do you especially love about it, believe in?

2. What gives you the persistence to keep going?

3. What stops you?

4. What might you change to allow more momentum and constancy in your writing practice?