The most common theme I heard at the 15th Annual Killer Nashville International Writers Conference was all about persistence. If one is going to be a success in the writing business, one must be persistent. That means to believe in yourself, develop a thick skin against rejections, and keep working to get better. I was reminded of the great James Lee Burke's story about a novel of his that received 110 rejections. He was discouraged and ready to quit. His wife told him to send it out again, it was published, and eventually nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. I will write about persistence in future blogs, realizing that persistence applies to many more fields than writing novels.
In the meantime, I’ll be at Hub City Writers Project talking to Scott Gould about books and writing tomorrow, September 1st, at 7. Y’all come out now, y’hear?
