{"id":323,"date":"2012-06-11T09:53:47","date_gmt":"2012-06-11T14:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/?p=323"},"modified":"2012-06-11T09:56:14","modified_gmt":"2012-06-11T14:56:14","slug":"overcoming-obstacles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/2012\/06\/11\/overcoming-obstacles\/","title":{"rendered":"Overcoming Obstacles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As writers, we are no stranger to the occasional inspiration blockage or difficulty in starting a new scene. There are pitfalls scattered everywhere in writing. Those come from within and are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/10\/how-to-overcome-writer\u2019s-block\/\" target=\"_blank\">easily curable<\/a>. The biggest problem you will face is the external obstacles that are created by others. Springing up as if from nowhere, blindsiding you as you turn a corner, these hurdles can send a writer flat on their face and for some, they don\u2019t recover.<a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/roadblock.png\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-324\" title=\"roadblock\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/roadblock.png?resize=150%2C150\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/roadblock.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/roadblock.png?zoom=2&amp;resize=150%2C150 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/roadblock.png?zoom=3&amp;resize=150%2C150 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Never fear, help is here! To assist you out of the proverbial hole, I have amassed a list of the biggest problems writers face from other people and how you can conquer them!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Unsupportive Family and Friends:<\/strong> Is there a Negative Nancy within your circle? Do they pester and bother you about how your dreams of being published are unrealistic? <em>Tune them out<\/em>. Without doing a psychological evaluation on why they do this, just ignore unsupportive people. Wade through the muck and locate the people around you who believe in your dream as well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Beta Reader Doesn\u2019t Like Your Book:<\/strong> \u00a0After your beta reader finishes your story, you discover they don\u2019t like it. While that\u2019s unfortunate, it\u2019s not the end of the world. You just happened to pick someone who wasn\u2019t right for your story. Remember: there are billions of other readers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>No One Wants to Read Your Book:<\/strong> If you search for a beta reader, or critique partner, anyone to help you with feedback and you can\u2019t locate anyone, it\u2019s time to widen your search. This doesn\u2019t mean that no one will like your book. What it means is that you haven\u2019t found them yet. Take to the web or to school, or work- someone will help.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Computer Virus:<\/strong> These hit at unknown times and I am all too familiar with the panic of \u201cWhat about my story!?\u201d To protect yourself, get a jump drive and save your work remotely so if something awful befalls your computer, your work is safe.<\/p>\n<p>-In the case of you hardcopy writers, be sure to lock away your notepad or journal in a fire and waterproof location like a safe.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scathing Review<\/strong>:\u00a0 <em>This is for my indie friends<\/em>&#8211; When you get your story up on the internet for all to see and someone leaves you a nasty, ill hearted review, you have to shake it off. The internet provides a curtain for nasty people to be ten-times worse than they would be in real life. Ignore it and try your best to bounce back.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Multiple Rejections:<\/strong> <em>This is for my queriers<\/em>&#8211; The path to publication is paved with rejections. Every author, from Hemingway to your next door neighbor, has dealt with rejection letters. It\u2019s bound to happen so grow a thick skin and keep on querying until you find the person who loves your story as much as you do!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/hurdle.png\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-325\" title=\"hurdle\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/hurdle.png?resize=150%2C150\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/hurdle.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/hurdle.png?zoom=2&amp;resize=150%2C150 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>The sentiment for these issues is generally the same. Keep doing what you love, regardless of the naysayers. Not everyone is going to think your book is as amazing as you do, that\u2019s the beauty of stories- everyone has a different opinion.<\/p>\n<p>These are only a few of the most common incidents you might run into, but each writer\u2019s journey is different. What is the biggest obstacle you had to overcome? How did you do it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As writers, we are no stranger to the occasional inspiration blockage or difficulty in starting a new scene. There are pitfalls scattered everywhere in writing. Those come from within and are easily curable. The biggest problem you will face is the external obstacles that are created by others. Springing up as if from nowhere, blindsiding [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[59,64,54,34,72,23,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agent","category-audience","category-emotion","category-inspiration","category-query","category-review","category-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YHlB-5d","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions\/328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}