Expect The Unexpected!

Have you ever been disappointed in a person because they didn’t follow through on their promises to you? I have.

Many times when I would try to get my writing noticed by others. People made commitments to help me, look at my work, or accept my writing for their publication, but chose not to follow through. I became angry with these promise breakers and I struggled with forgiving them. In fact, I wanted to strangle them. However, my personal beliefs constrained me from going this far. Instead, I held a grudge for many months. This also was against my personal beliefs, but since it wouldn’t land me in jail, I decided to keep it.

Did holding grudges help my writing to take off in any way?

Absolutely not!

Eventually after I stopped feeling sorry for myself and being angry with other people, I decided how important it was for me not to put my ultimate trust in other people. I also learned an important lesson:
Expect the unexpected. As a writer, how could I do this?

Expect that:
People will often fail to follow through on their commitments to help you
People will say they’ll call you, but won’t
Editors and publishers may not contact you when they stated
Your computer may crash
You could misplace your manuscript or worse, your computer stick

While in most cases, you can’t change the unexpected, you can decide to overcome these obstacles. Realize that you’re not the first writer to experience these things and you can overcome them!