Cintia
asked
Shaun David Hutchinson:
I'm an aspiring writer, but I'm dealing with two things: I get discouraged every single day because 96% of manuscripts are rejected, and I haven't had an idea for years, literally. There's too many people wanting to be writers, and knowing there's so much competition just kills me a little every day. When I get motivated, immediatly something appears about the industry that kills it. Any tips on how to deal with this?
Shaun David Hutchinson
This is a good question.
Try not to worry about others being rejected. The best thing you can do is focus on your work. I had this writer friend who was always disappointed when they'd get rejections. But whenever they'd ask me to look at their work and I pointed out areas that could be improved, they said it was good enough. The truth is that "good enough" is never actually good enough. Work on honing your craft and writing the best book possible.
Ideas are tough, and this is a two-part thing. Because I think you DO have ideas, but it seems that when you have them you see something similar that makes you drop it. So here's a story. I wrote my first book, The Deathday Letter, back in 2009. It came out in 2010. It's about a kid who gets a letter telling him he's going to die. A couple of years later, Lance Rubin wrote a book called Denton Little's Death Date, about a kid who, you guessed it, knows the day he's going to die. Lance and I didn't know each other. It was just a weird coincidence. Even weirder is that just this year, Adam Silvera published a book called They Both Die at the End about two boys who find out the day they're going to die.
Each of our books had a similar concept, but they were SO different because it's not the idea that's special, it's you. Your experiences, your passion, what YOU bring to the story that no one else can bring. So don't worry if you have an idea that someone else has or has written, because you're not going to be writing it the same way. You're going to write something totally unique.
It's tough not to be discouraged sometimes, and it's tough not to look around at other people's successes and compare yourself, but that's what you have to do. You're on a journey, and how and when people get to their own destination won't change how and when YOU get there. So focus on you. Write the best books you can write. And when that doesn't help, there's always ice cream :)
Try not to worry about others being rejected. The best thing you can do is focus on your work. I had this writer friend who was always disappointed when they'd get rejections. But whenever they'd ask me to look at their work and I pointed out areas that could be improved, they said it was good enough. The truth is that "good enough" is never actually good enough. Work on honing your craft and writing the best book possible.
Ideas are tough, and this is a two-part thing. Because I think you DO have ideas, but it seems that when you have them you see something similar that makes you drop it. So here's a story. I wrote my first book, The Deathday Letter, back in 2009. It came out in 2010. It's about a kid who gets a letter telling him he's going to die. A couple of years later, Lance Rubin wrote a book called Denton Little's Death Date, about a kid who, you guessed it, knows the day he's going to die. Lance and I didn't know each other. It was just a weird coincidence. Even weirder is that just this year, Adam Silvera published a book called They Both Die at the End about two boys who find out the day they're going to die.
Each of our books had a similar concept, but they were SO different because it's not the idea that's special, it's you. Your experiences, your passion, what YOU bring to the story that no one else can bring. So don't worry if you have an idea that someone else has or has written, because you're not going to be writing it the same way. You're going to write something totally unique.
It's tough not to be discouraged sometimes, and it's tough not to look around at other people's successes and compare yourself, but that's what you have to do. You're on a journey, and how and when people get to their own destination won't change how and when YOU get there. So focus on you. Write the best books you can write. And when that doesn't help, there's always ice cream :)
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Shaun David Hutchinson:
I like your book The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley. Where did you garner the feelings and the depth of Andrew's character? It is so real and raw.
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