It has never
been easy for me to understand why people work so hard to create something
beautiful, but then refuse to share it with anyone, for fear of criticism.
Wasn’t that the point of the creation – to communicate something to the world?
So PUT IT OUT THERE. Send your work off to editors and agents as much as
possible, show it to your neighbors, plaster it on the walls of the bus stops –
just don’t sit on your work and suffocate it. At least try. And when the
powers-that-be send you back your manuscript (and they will), take a deep
breath and try again. I often hear people say, “I’m not good enough yet to be
published.” That’s quite possible. Probable, even. All I’m saying is: Let
someone else decide that. Magazines, editors, agents – they all employ young
people making $22,000 a year whose job it is to read through piles of
manuscripts and send you back letters telling you that you aren’t good enough
yet: LET THEM DO IT. Don’t pre-reject yourself. That’s their job, not yours.
Your job is only to write your heart out, and let destiny take care of the
rest.—Elizabeth Gilbert Eat, Pray, Love
