Happy Thursday to you all! The blessed weekend is almost upon us, and then it will be time to kick back and say goodbye to writing for two days. Bev is deserting me for the weekend, the temps are supposed to be in the nineties, and I have a to-do list to attack. I suspect I’ll be more than ready to write on Monday.
Today I believe we will talk about……fear and rejection.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
GUEST BLOGGER OF THE DAY
I would like you to say hello to a writer friend of mine who graciously accepted my invitation to guest blog. Say hello to Zainab Tarawali. You can find his blog here and I encourage you to do so.
Fear and Rejection: My Two New Pals
I’ve been writing since I was a child – from silly short stories to intimate journals on life’s lessons. It wasn’t until a few months ago that I finally mustered up the courage to make a business out of my writing. I would say that I put all doubt and fear to the side but that’s not exactly what happened.
Like many folks, I dreaded fear for the longest. If a situation arose that lead to adversity, fear would always find its way in and I couldn’t stand it. Plus I hated myself for reacting to fear and letting it affect me. I would let it cripple me and sometimes even stop me in my tracks. Then it got to a point when I decided to fight back. Fight back the thoughts, the naysayers and the horrible effects it had on me. Fighting worked at first, but that stopped working after a while.
Then there’s lovely rejection. We’ve all experienced that more than once and it’s never pleasant. Situations that left me rejected would just leave a nasty scar on my mind and heart. So I took the same steps I took towards dealing with fear, I decided to avoid any situation that would lead to rejection as best as I could. Yeah, that didn’t last long either. Plus I got tired of missing out on things.
When I realized that I needed to take my writing seriously and make moves, fear and rejection made their way to my mind, but after dealing with them so much over the years and learning that fighting them wasn’t working, I reached a conclusion. I shouldn’t dread or avoid either one. They are a part of life and I wasn’t abnormal for feeling fear; it’s a natural emotion. Rejection was a part of life and I could learn from it and not hold onto painful memories. These two could really take me places! Case in point, after experiencing fear and rejection career wise, I was able to face both and use them as motivators – the end result was a huge promotion doing something that I love. I’m applying this same type of energy to my writing and I couldn’t be more excited.
So I look at fear and rejection and say to both of them: I thank you for everything you’ve taught me and given me over the years. You guys are not setbacks, stumbling blocks, or delays. You are motivators and fire starters! Thanks for giving me the courage to write my first pitch letters to editors and to even serve as a guest blogger on a great website. Thanks guys!
AND THAT’S IT FOR THIS WEEK
Thanks again to Musu for taking the time to do my work for me this week. I hope you all follow his blog, and I wish all of you a wonderful weekend of rest and relaxation. Oh, and if you should want to read my new novel, Resurrecting Tobias, you can find it on Amazon or my website at www.williamdhollandauthor.com.
Bill
“Helping writers to spread their wings and fly.”
Billybuc
Artistry With Words 
First off, have a great weekend and even though it was a short week with much to celebrate here still excited for the weekend and some down time. Second,w hat a wonderful guest post and will say, I was taught by my mom that as long as we leaner from our mistakes, fear s and rejections that they are all for a good reason and need to be experienced. So, I honestly couldn’t agree more with the overall message here today. Thanks to both of you and again happy almost weekend!! 🙂
Thank you Janine. I was afraid as a child….not as an adult. What’s the worst that can happen to me? I will fail! Oh well. 🙂
What a great outlook on fear and rejection! Put them to work for you rather than let them keep you from your dreams. Wonderful perspective.
Enjoy your weekend, Bill. I’ll be baking a German Chocolate cake for my son’s birthday Sunday. Yum!
I agree, Sha, it is a great outlook, and I agree about the cake…yum!
I very much enjoyed your guest bloggers perspective. I feel very much the same re; fear/rejection.
I sold insurance on commiss…..sooooo….lol…NOTHING can hurt me now!
That’s not to say i don’t suffer from the same insecurities – including a fear of success and failure.
Strange but true. Great job Zainab.
My friend, if you sold insurance on commission, then nothing in the writing business can defeat you. 🙂 I had a similar experience as a salesman, and I must prefer these days. Thanks, Sis.
Thanks Leslie. I can’t imagine myself in that type of job – very courageous of you!
I deal with fear every time I perform. I learned a long time ago to embrace it as part of the experience–sounds odd I know, but it works. Over time, it becomes a smaller part of the experience for me–I expect it is similar in writing–so it was gratifying for me to read this post today–
Thank you, Audrey, for sharing that. It’s interesting how some of us learn to embrace the fear, and others spend a lifetime running from it.
Thanks again Bill. I’m glad to have the opportunity to share thoughts with your wonderful readers! Thank you everyone for reading and commenting. 🙂
And thank you again, Musu. It was a pleasure having you help me.
I enjoyed reading today’s blog and your guest blogger’s post. I found it helpful in facing the challenges of writing.
I’ll let him know, Dianna. Thank you.