[2024-04-08] Success changes the narrative
British poet Wendy Cope spent six years writing poems and sending them to magazines, only to be rejected again and again.
But after taking a poetry class with a teacher who published one of her poems, she came to the attention of a large independent publishing house. Faber & Faber would publish Cope's first volume of poetry, which made the bestsellers list—not the poetry sellers list, Cope pointed out, but the actual best sellers list.
Speaking on Desert Island Discs in 2019, Cope told host Lauren Laverne:
When that first book came out, and suddenly I felt successful. You then, you go back and the whole story of your life changes as your life changes because you say, "Oh, it was leading up to this, but I didn't know that."
Cope would go on to win numerous literary awards, to be described by The Guardian as "one of the country's most widely read and best-loved poets," and to be awarded an Order of the British Empire.
Similarly, Jamaican-born Marlon James had given up on being a writer after his first manuscript was rejected 78 times. American novelist Kaylie Jones, who led a writing workshop in Jamaica that James attended, insisted that she would not leave the country until James gave her a copy of his manuscript. She loved it and showed it to her publisher, who published it.
Later, when he began teaching creative writing, he told his students: "believe in yourself." Speaking on Desert Island Discs in 2019, James told host Lauren Laverne that he advises his students:
Don't do what I did. Seventy-eight people can be wrong. And sometimes "majority" just means all the wrong people are on the same side.
James' first novel, John Crow's Devil, would become a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for first fiction and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. His 2014 novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings, would win the prestigious Man Booker Prize for fiction in 2015.
Many of us no doubt have felt like Cope and James: toiling in obscurity for years, feeling rejected, struggling to find our fit in the world. Then, suddenly, we succeed at something, and our narrative changes from defeat to determination. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see our past struggles and failures as steps on the path to our present achievement.
Of course, it's incredibly hard to see the possibility for success when we're mired in what feels like failure. Sometimes, it takes another person to see our potential, such as a teacher, which was the case for both Cope and James.
But for those of us who aren't writers or taking a creative writing class, there is still benefit in believing in ourselves.
During a few particularly challenging periods in my career, I used to repeat the Colin Powell affirmation: "Things will get better. You will make them better." This quote reminded me of two things: a better future awaits, and I have a hand in creating that future.
