This isn't really a query, more an encouragement.
There have been a number of questions recently from those concerned that their writing's not good enough, for some reason. I think we probably all suffer from that doubt.
The usual, and best, advice is to keep on writing, so when I came across this quote today from Theodore Roosevelt, particularly apt for all who write, I thought I'd reproduce it here.
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions . . . who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Keep the faith, chaps :)
Great quote, Jonathan; thanks.
Just what I needed, inspiration on a gloomy Friday afternoon
I suffer continual agonies of why am I doing this?
why WHY WHY put myself through this hell?
Brilliant, I love a good quote, especially inspirational ones. Although it is hard when you have been rejected. Publishers are too stuck up to give you a reason for why your work was not good enough. And what's worst is when you walk into a book shop and see books on the shelves that are awful! and you know you can do so much better, yet you are rejected. Makes me wonder if getting published is a thing where you have to know a person, who knows a person in publishing to get a shot. A secretive back-scratching society where only those with agents and contacts get in. And you, on the slush pile are the last people publishers will ever accept, and they have already pre-printed your rejection.