The Slush Pile

Photo credit: Tamara Hanson

The slush pile! Scary words. Any author will tell you that they don't want their work languishing on the slush pile. It's not fun there. You know your story is crying to be heard, but it's voice is being muffled by all of the other manuscripts aching to be read.

How does a writer avoid the slush pile? Well, many will tell you to have a snappy dialogue, an interesting storyline, lovable characters, or a hard hitting first chapter that pulls the reader in within the first 8 seconds. Nothing says 'read me' like a 'grabby' first paragraph.

But, wait a minute! There are scads of books on the shelves that made it out of the slush pile and onto the book shelves and they, quite frankly, suck. Some of them are so poorly written, you feel like poking your eyes out. How in the world did this 'thing' get published?

I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done. --Steven Wright

My belief is that it comes down to believing in yourself as a writer and believing in the story you are telling. I have mentioned before that if you have no passion for your story, for your characters, then your readers will pick up on it.

In the same breath, if you have no faith in yourself as a writer or believe that you can't write something that people want to read, than potential readers will pick up on that too. If you don't love what you do, it will show.

"Love is easy, and I love writing. You can't resist love. You get an idea, someone says something, and you're in love." --Ray Bradbury

What do you do? Start believing in yourself as a writer. Begin to tell yourself that you are an amazing writer and that people love your work. Start believing it. Start falling in love with your writing, your characters, and your story.

Seeing as everything is vibration (thoughts, words, actions, people, everything!), then set your vibration to one of believing in yourself and your writing.

How do you think those crappy books got on the bookshelves? The writer believed in their work, believed in their story, and fell in love with it. They were in love with their work and felt the readers should be too. And, guess what? That poorly written novel is now a bestseller.

Food for thought.

Keep on writing!