Never, Never, Never Give Up

Talk About Rejection:

 

"The Help" has earned $154.4 million at the box office so far.
 
Not bad for a screenplay based on book that was rejected 60 times.
 
The author, Kathryn Stockett wrote, "In the end, I received 60 rejections for The Help. But letter number 61 was the one that accepted me. After my five years of writing and three and a half years of rejection, an agent named Susan Ramer took pity on me. What if I had given up at 15? Or 40? Or even 60? Three weeks later, Susan sold The Help to Amy Einhorn Books."

 

More Famous Rejections:

• Margaret Mitchell – Gone With The Wind (38)
• Rudyard Kipling managed to sell one article to The San Francisco Examiner in 1889, but the paper then rejected any future submissions, saying, "You just don't know how to use the English language."
• John Kennedy Toole, meanwhile, received so many rejection letters for his novel, A Confederacy Of Dunces, that he finally killed himself. Only the persistence of his bereaved mother led to the eventual publication of his novel and its receipt of the Pulitzer Prize in 1980.
• Richard Bach – Jonathan Livingston Seagull (140)
• Stephen King – Carrie (30)
• Richard Adams – Watership Down (26)
• Thor Heyerdahl – The KonTiki Expedition,(18)
• Laurence J. Peter – The Peter Principle (16)
• JK Rowling – Harry Potter books (12)
• Beatrix Potter – The Tale of Peter Rabbit (8). She finally published it herself.

Val Waldeck

 

P.S. Self-Publishing is King! Createspace for Amazon P-Books and Kindle for Amazon E-Books.

 

Never Say Never

Here's a story I thought would appeal to most of you:
Yesterday, I came across a point in my writing that needed clarification from a map of the Caribbean. I went and got the Atlas, and on my way back to my desk, I saw my younger sister doing mapwork in the book I remembered with no pleasant feelings. I decided to show my sympathy:

"Shame, Charissa. You have to do mapwork!" And I began looking through the Atlas index.

Then my mother suddenly said, "Aren't you glad you had to do mapwork?"  And I realized that while so empathetically declaring how I had hated mapwork, I was consulting maps for my story!

Well, my family got me there. My worst fear now is that they will triumph in the maths-issue. Will I one day be caught willingly working out those sickening co-tangents or trying to integrate an awful function for fun?

Hi, I’m Cheryl and this is a new beginning with regards my writing. I have been a writer most of my life, however, until the day I met my Redeemer, my writing was self-centred and empty. Now it’s full of testimonies of how amazing our Heavenly Father is, and forever will be. Poetry, prayers and devotionals are just some of what I enjoy writing.

I have suffered a long dry spell away from my keyboard and screen. I am trying to understand why, and have a string of justifiable reasons that I am working through.

One thing I have never stopped is journaling, and through my written notes, I am able to see where I have been wondering.

I am published in various Anthologies of Verse, and in two different e-zines, but am yet to publish a book of my own. This is a dream I pray I will be able to fulfil, just need the confidence to pull me out my comfort zone.

I continuously wrestle with my thoughts, and wonder if procrastination plays a bigger role than I realise. Also, I find that I carry too many stories in my head at a time, and tend to lose focus. For these reasons, I pray that God would allow my creative writing juices to flow in such a way, that His Mighty name may be glorified in what I pen.

What I enjoy about the CWOSA group, is the regular emails that make me accountable, which is a discipline I need. I love writing and can’t help wanting to write all the time, and because I write for God, I feel compelled to share further than my journal notes.

So, here’s to my Lord and King; thank You Father God for my wonderful gift of creative writing, for which I pray I will use effectively, diligently and regularly, to extol You and Your glorious Kingdom, in Jesus precious name I pray, amen.