Failure is hard but it's part of the writing process. Once we accept failure as truly par for the course, we will fear it less and not allow it to define us. This applies to all life, not just writing. In light of the recent election here in the US, I read this article in Forbes Magazine, Exclusive Interview: How Jared Kushner Won Trump the White House . This article ties in perfectly with today's thoughts on overcoming failure. In the quest for the White House, the article tells us that, behind the scenes, Jared Kushner tried many avenues and social media tactics to promote his father-in-law's presidential campaign, quickly halting what didn't work and putting more energy into what did work. Did you read that? He quickly halted what didn't work. This means not everything he did worked. This means he failed along the way, but still saw success in the end. The one thing he did was constantly take risks. Some risks panned out and some didn't, but he took the...

The inevitable failure we face as writers should not be what defines us as writers. We write, we fail, we write some more. I never really consider failure something to slow me down. By failure, I'm talking about failure to see publication. We can be highly successful writers if all we do is write; if that's our only motivation. But, getting published is another story and we all face the failure of not getting published, of being rejected by a publisher. I was recently asked to write an article on a specific topic. We signed a contract and I wrote the article. In the meantime, the publisher changed staff and the editor I'd been working with was no longer there. Even though I had a contract, they rejected my article. I'm still going to get paid for writing it, but they are not going to publish the article. I believe in this article; I am looking for another outlet in which to publish it. I've already sent it to another editor. This leads me to the 4th part of ...