As an aspiring writer, I wanted to give up on my dream of being published about a hundred times. People close to me even encouraged me to give up. But each time I was really serious about calling it quits, something would happen to encourage me. I’d final in a contest or get a note of encouragement from an agent or hear something really motivational in a workshop.

I stuck with it for four years and realized my dream.

Of course, I didn’t know that I’d realize my dream in four years. I can’t see the future any more than any of you, and for all I knew, four years could have been ten or fifteen or never.

But I would have never known that I could realize my dream if I hadn’t stuck with it.

If any of you are feeling like giving up, let me give you some stick-with-it-ness tips:

1) Set achievable goals. Plan to write 3 days a week or 5 pages a day. Maybe you want to find a critique partner or submit to 2 agents a month. When you achieve your goals, you’ll feel like you’re making progress.

2) Celebrate small victories. If you write 5 pages a day for a week, treat yourself to a movie or your favorite snack or a day off.

3) Focus on what you can and are doing, not what you can’t control. You cannot control whether your dream agent takes you on as a client. You cannot control whether your book finals in a contest or whether you sell by the end of the year. You can control your book, your characters, and your writing schedule. Feel good about that.

4) Keep moving forward. If you get a rejection or you realize that a book you’ve spent 6 months on just is not salvageable (happened to me and not very long ago), don’t give up. Write another book. Query another agent. Published writers are persistent.

5) Get some support. I’m lucky to have a husband who really takes an interest in my career. He cares about how many pages I write a day and whether or not I need a sub-plot. Maybe your DH isn’t as supportive. Maybe no one in your family gets why your dream is so important to you. Find a writing group and friends who do. When you don’t have to rely solely on family for support, you take the pressure off them and you.

Good luck!