How to be a resilient writer
Resilience depends on your mindset — but it also takes a community.
What do you think of when you hear the word ‘resilience’? A stoic ability to withstand the slings and arrows of life? A story of overcoming insurmountable odds to win in the end? Pulling your socks up and facing the world alone through sheer effort of will? Unshakable self-belief? A superhero?
If you want to be an author, you will come up against challenges, difficulties, setbacks, criticism, rejection and failure — regularly. It goes with the territory. One of the qualities you therefore need to be a successful author is resilience.
But you don’t have to do it alone. In fact, you shouldn’t. Because resilience isn’t the innate character trait we often assume it to be. It’s a collective strength rather than an individual one. Resilience depends on your mindset — but it also takes a community.
Resilient writers are successful writers. So let’s take a look at how you can build, nurture and encourage writing resilience.
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What is resilience?
Resilience is the capacity to withstand, or recover quickly from, challenges and difficulties. The American Psychological Association (APA) defines it as:
“The process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.”
Resilience is a key life skill, and one we’ve all had to learn to develop in recent years. It’s also essential for writers. Many writers fall at the first hurdle. If you’re resilient, you’ll probably fall at the first hurdle too. The difference is: you’ll get up, carry on, and finish the race. All those people who ‘have a book in them’… Well, good for them. You’ll actually get it out of you and onto a bookshelf — because of your resilience.
Resilience is the ability to keep going despite criticism, rejection and failure. If you’re a resilient writer, you can bounce back from setbacks and keep on going.
Another setback most of us face at one time or another is the struggle to write at all. You might feel creatively blocked, unable to focus, or endlessly procrastinate. Other posts in this newsletter will hopefully help with some of those blocks.
So I would define writing resilience as both these things:
The ability not to be knocked off course by the inevitable criticisms, rejections and failures that goes with being an author.
The capacity to write something, every day, despite not feeling like it.
Resilience takes internal strength — but it also requires external support.
Resilience and mindsets
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, as the saying goes. And exposure to setbacks does provide a sort of psychological immunity, similar to the way that physical immunity works.
Resilience is something that comes with experience. Easier said than done when you’re a new author without a string of failures (don’t worry — the failures will come!). But you can also cultivate it. And whether you’re new or experienced, one thing that makes a difference is the mindset with which you approach setbacks.
If you’re an emerging author, your first setbacks can seem harsh and overwhelming. How you react to them and mentally frame them is crucial. Do you give up at the first challenge? Or does it spur you on to prove yourself?
“People with a growth mindset tend to demonstrate the kind of perseverance and resilience required to convert life’s setbacks into future successes.” — Carol Dweck
It should come as no surprise by now that having a growth mindset will provide you with greater resilience. You’ll also learn from setbacks, and adapt and improve as you go. Carol Dweck says in her book Mindset: “People with a growth mindset tend to demonstrate the kind of perseverance and resilience required to convert life’s setbacks into future successes.”
But the mindset with which you approach setbacks is only part of the story. Other people are crucial too.
Build a community to build writing resilience
You might, like most people, think of resilience as an innate character trait. While your innate mental framing of setbacks is a factor, and having a growth mindset will help you keep going, you can’t do it all alone. Resilience takes a community.
There’s plenty of evidence to back this up, including numerous research papers on the positive effects social support has on resilience to stress.
Former vice president of Twitter turned bestselling author Bruce Daisley busts some myths about resilience in his book Fortitude: The Myth of Resilience, and the Secrets of Inner Strength. Interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on 26 August 2022, he said:
“Resilience is a collective strength rather than an individual strength. There’s no shortage of resilience webinars being offered to people right now, or resilience classes at school, but it’s almost this individualistic intervention. And the truth is that when you look into the truth about resilience, when it actually occurs, it’s a collective thing rather than an individual thing.”
He goes on to say resilience depends on support networks:
“It’s because when we feel part of something, it seems to embolden us and protect us. Not everyone’s got access to those groups. But as soon as you understand that resilience comes from feeling connected to other people then you can focus on trying to do that.”
So rather than trying to force yourself to ‘be resilient’ through sheer effort of will, why not use that energy to try to build your community instead? Writing is, by its nature, often isolating. But don’t neglect the social aspects of being a writer until you’re in front of an audience of your readers!
“As soon as you understand that resilience comes from feeling connected to other people then you can focus on trying to do that.” — Bruce Daisley
We all need social support to encourage us, share our ups and downs, discuss ideas, help solve problems and feel we’re not alone in the world. Writers are no different. And the support of other writers can be a wonderful thing — especially if there’s no one else in your life who understands what you do or why!
Here are just a few things you could do:
Join a writing group. In person or online.
Take a writing course. It doesn’t have to be an MA in Creative Writing. You could take a short course at your local educational institution, or an online workshop on a specific aspect of writing. You’ll meet people as well as learn something.
Meet up with a writer friend. Social support can be on a small scale. Arrange to meet regularly with just one writer friend — or speak on the phone or via Zoom.
Schedule an online focus session. I’ll probably write more about this, as it’s something I do myself. The basic idea is to gather a small group of writer friends for a ‘remote co-working’ session on Zoom or Teams. Then intersperse focused working ‘sprints’ with breaks to chat about your work (or, indeed, anything).
Use social media. Connect with other writers and share tips, progress, frustrations, advice, and ups and downs. Use hashtags such as #WritingCommunity or #AmWriting to find and connect with other writers.
Support other writers. Recommend a book you’ve enjoyed on social media. Offer to read a friend’s first draft. Writers supporting writers works both ways.
It takes a community to publish a book. And that starts now, at the writing stage. What will you do to build your writing community — and your writing resilience?
Image: Natalya Bardushka/Shutterstock