On Friday, I announced on social media that I am represented by Intersaga Literary Agency.

It has taken me a year to find someone who believes in me and my work.

During my year of querying, I wrote a book and rewrote another, queried numerous agents, and received a range of responses, some positive and some not so much.

Through all this, I kept a gratitude journal.

I have never kept a gratitude journal before. I never believed in them, until I heard this phrase, when you start appreciating the good, the good gets better. No idea where it came from but it was linked to a post on gratitude.

I am sitting here, flicking through my gratitude journal, and I think this has been a surprising writing tool for me. I am grateful to it because I believe it kept me sane and kept me focused.

Keeping a gratitude journal shifted my mindset. With my writing I focused on progress and not perfection. Every word written became something to celebrate. I am looking at the page where I drew stars and hearts after giving thanks for 1,567 words.

I even celebrated the rejections. They were medals of honour. I had been brave and taken a risk. Despite being hard to write, I thanked the universe for each rejection, and I thanked the agent too.

If the rejection had been received within twelve hours, I thanked the agent for their promptness in redirecting me.

One agent mentioned that even though she was rejecting me, my query had made her snort with laughter a few times. That, for me, was a small win, and I gave thanks for her honesty.

The big thing was that I thanked myself for showing up when life outside of writing was tough. The act of doing this was powerful. I gave thanks to myself for getting words down on paper when there was a giant hole in my kitchen ceiling and water coming through, when I had an allergic reaction and my face went bright red for days, when I was going through a challenging time at work and when my kids were going through difficult episodes in their lives.

My gratitude journal has become a writing habit and a mindset practice.

Sometimes the best writing tools aren’t the fancy ones we expect – they’re the ones that remind us to notice what’s already working.

Do you keep a gratitude journal?

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