Look At Me Mama

My 20 month old daughter thrives on getting approval and attention. Once a week we go to Gymboree where she runs, dances, bounces, and shouts for 45 minutes, all the while looking at either me or the instructor for our smiles, nods of the head, claps, and cheers. As long as we are watching her, Ayla is content. The more people she's showing off for the better. It is so cute, but also makes me feel a bit sad in a way, knowing that she craves love of others so much. As a military family, it's just my husband and me in her day-to-day life since our families live out of town. I think she needs people and I wish there were more people to regularly give her the attention she seeks.

As a writer-mama, I often wonder if I too shout out "Look at me" when it comes to my manuscripts. The query letters and cover letters I send out definitely are polished and try to grab the readers attention, but what about my manuscripts. Like my daughter at Gymboree, my manuscripts are full of energy, time, love, and joy. The rejection letters I've received for some of them are far from clapping and cheering, and that's okay. I reread the manuscripts, polish them up perhaps, and send them off again. But to keep my heart in my writing, to plow ahead with a new project with the same energy and heart I invested in previous ones, that is some times harder to do.

When I mention to Ayla that we're going to Gymboree, she immediately lights up and points to her hand where she will get a Gymbo the Clown stamp at the end of the class. When I think about writing or a project I'm working on, I too get excited and anticipate the moment when I can write. But at the end of the day, I don't have a cheery instructor stamping a "good job" stamp on my hand.

I'm not the type of person who cares what others think about me, but I do wish I could talk with editors who have rejected my manuscripts to know what was lacking in them. I feel like my writing would progress more if I knew; however, editors are swamped and understandably too busy to write personal rejection letters for each submission.

So it boils down to self-encouragement. I try to cheer myself on during the writing process by acknowledging that I've reached certain word count goals, finished researching for a writing project, spent time writing in my journal, attempted new writing that's outside the box, and completed a manuscript.

How do you encourage yourself during the writing process? What do you do to keep going with a strong heart and mind after receiving a rejection letter?