Don't You Dare Give Up

This post is for all the querying writers, drenched by the torrential downpour of rejections, thinking "This sucks. I'm done. I quit."

We're here to tell you something. A wise man once said: The night is darkest before the dawn...

But I promise you, the dawn is coming!

If we can be 100% honest for a moment, this blog exists because we read somewhere that "authors HAVE to have blogs if they want to get published!" Something about online presence, or platform, or whatever. It's not the best reason, but that's why we're here. But because we're here, there's an online, chronological record of our journey. Every hope-ridden query, every heart-breaking rejection, every existential crisis, every thought of quitting and every determined charge back into the fray that's led us to where we are.

Aug 2011:
Here's when we sent out our first queries, cautiously optimistic but in reality CONVINCED we were going to land an agent in no time.

Sept 2011:
Here's us face-planting.
Here's us curling into a fetal ball and crying ourselves to sleep.
Here's where Janet Reid helped us figure out how to write a good query.

Nov 2011:
Here's where that query got us a request from SUZIE TOWNSEND!

July 2012:
Here's us realizing that despite our great query, our MS didn't work, and we spent 9 months rewriting it.

Aug 2012:
Here's us girding our loins to re-enter the querying trenches, with our re-written MS, certain victory just over the horizon.

Oct 2012
Aaand here's us getting rejected AGAIN, followed by us seriously questioning why we were doing this at all. It's not obvious from the post, but at this point we were seriously thinking about quitting.

Here's us tearing up our MS, starting from scratch, using all the lessons we learned from all the failures we've had up till now...

Feb 2012:
Here's us finishing our second MS and jumping back into the trenches

Jul 2013:
And here's us making it.

Notice a pattern? All the places where we grew as writers came at the points where we were at our worst. Where we failed the hardest. Where we were convinced we didn't belong in this industry.

But then, we always rolled over, said "OH FUCK THIS NOISE" and learned from our mistakes. WHY did we fail? What can we do different next time? Now take that knowledge, get out there, and KICK SOME FUCKING ASS!

So basically, what we're trying to say, fellow aspiring writers, is what you're going through is NOT the Universe telling you that you won't make it as a writer. This is The Process. It's the Gauntlet that all writers have to go through, to prove that they're worthy. The ones that don't make it are the ones that turn back.

Don't. Turn. Back.

Take that rejection and slice into it.

What does it mean? What is it telling you? There's a lesson in there somewhere. It's hidden, but it's there. And I would know, because every time a really bad rejection stabbed us in the gut and made us want to quit, there's always been a hidden lesson behind it. Always. In this industry, and completely opposite to real life, when you're stabbed in the gut, that's when you grow.

So don't give up.

Never give up.

Figure out why. Then come out swinging. They'll never know what hit 'em.

Let's make it together.