KNOW YOUR BUSINESS...
Never lose sight of the fact that you're in the Entertainment Industry. Your goal is to be read, and by as many people as possible, and they all want to be entertained, enlightened, titillated, moved, and distracted.
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...AND Develop a very thick skin...
The younger you are the thinner your skin is. But once it gets belted enough times by reviewers, critics, non-believers, sceptics, proof readers, and agents, it toughens up. And you may not believe this but that's a GOOD thing. You have to be able to take an Agent saying “Well, the first chapter is promising but the other twenty-five are rubbish” - take it on the chin and go back to the drawing board and try harder. Unless you're a born literary genius (and there's never been one of them) you'll have to go through a lot of criticism, mostly constructive if your head is in the right place.
So, if you have a tendency to break down
in tears or have a hissy-fit if someone says “Nah, this isn’t very good” about something
you’ve spent the last two years writing, remember (a) it’s just their opinion,
and (b) they may be right, but (c) sooner or later your work has to be
assessed, so EMBRACE CRITICISM.
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...AND REMEMBER - You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You...
“You're nobody till somebody loves you...” is a song line from something and the sentiment is dead set true for writers, not “You” as in yourself, but your work. All writing, in fact all creative works whether prose, sculpture, painting, dance, acting, singing, music, whatever, all need an audience to make them into “somebody”. As a writer, your work doesn't truly exist without an audience. It HAS to be read to breathe life into it. And read by as many as possible.
So, publication in some form is the goal for
your work. All effort is to that end.
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...AND Everyone Has A Plan...
The very large and very intimidating Mike Tyson once made the classic statement - “Everyone has a plan until they get hit in the face.” He could've been addressing a meeting of wannabe writers, but he wasn't of course, as Mike was mostly in the business of legally beating someone's head in for money. But a classic sentiment nonetheless.
The thing is, have your dreams of literary
acclaim by all means, and work like a dog to make them come true, but be ready
for reality to whack you in the kisser every so often. It happens. At which
point you shake it off, get up, lick your wounded pride, work out WHY you got
clobbered, and get stuck back in.
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