All great questions, Omar. As always, thanks for prompting new ideas! Your Gumpchat has become something I look forward to every Sunday and mull over all week. I suspect that resilience and antifragility, which I see as being essentially the same, are rooted somewhere in our DNA. What does the science point to on this, I wonder? Is one's automatic response positive or negative? Am I a glass half full or glass half empty person? Can resilience or antifragility be taught to one to whom it does not come easily? Rejection is part of what happens when we put our work out there. Yes, rejection hurts and can be discouraging. Of course. But how we grow and learn in the process of writing! And the joy and pain we experience while doing it! No one can take that away from us! My joy in writing stops the minute I send my work to an editor or publisher. Then, whether it is accepted or rejected, something else entirely takes over. And it is never fun. Please don't let the opinions of others in the publishing industry rob you of your joy. Want to know a secret, if you haven't yet learned it? Publishing, like medicine is a business. That should tell you a lot.
I keep mulling about that last sentence and I would love to hear more about it. I keep thinking of the parallels between a writer/reader relationship and doctor/patient relationship. I feel like there's a lot to unpack there in responsibility, power dynamics and overall experience of both parties depending on the state of each other.
But I'm not sure I understand too much of the economics of the publishing world yet to compare it to healthcare, but that is the most depressing thought I've ever heard :D
However they are both confusing and run by a few brand names that throw arbitrary numbers based on name and following.
I am curious about what other comparisons are out there!
All great questions, Omar. As always, thanks for prompting new ideas! Your Gumpchat has become something I look forward to every Sunday and mull over all week. I suspect that resilience and antifragility, which I see as being essentially the same, are rooted somewhere in our DNA. What does the science point to on this, I wonder? Is one's automatic response positive or negative? Am I a glass half full or glass half empty person? Can resilience or antifragility be taught to one to whom it does not come easily? Rejection is part of what happens when we put our work out there. Yes, rejection hurts and can be discouraging. Of course. But how we grow and learn in the process of writing! And the joy and pain we experience while doing it! No one can take that away from us! My joy in writing stops the minute I send my work to an editor or publisher. Then, whether it is accepted or rejected, something else entirely takes over. And it is never fun. Please don't let the opinions of others in the publishing industry rob you of your joy. Want to know a secret, if you haven't yet learned it? Publishing, like medicine is a business. That should tell you a lot.
I keep mulling about that last sentence and I would love to hear more about it. I keep thinking of the parallels between a writer/reader relationship and doctor/patient relationship. I feel like there's a lot to unpack there in responsibility, power dynamics and overall experience of both parties depending on the state of each other.
But I'm not sure I understand too much of the economics of the publishing world yet to compare it to healthcare, but that is the most depressing thought I've ever heard :D
However they are both confusing and run by a few brand names that throw arbitrary numbers based on name and following.
I am curious about what other comparisons are out there!