It comes to all of us in one form or another.
Writers are very familiar with it.
If it's not rejection slips, it's no one buying our books, or it's a bad review, or it's feeling as if there's little worth in anything we write, or it's something else.
Recently I was excited to share about a friend whose book had been published. What I wasn't so excited about sharing - with her - was the discovery that a page was missing out of her book. I felt terrible having to pass on such news and struggled how to do it without feeling that I was dealing her a dreadful blow. Thankfully, not every book was affected, but I know she found it discouraging.
If she is anything like me, she probably wondered if she should be writing at all. Writers are funny like that. We take any setback as a 'sign' that we've misinterpreted our calling, that we were hugely mistaken to think that we could write, that we are being pretentious imagining for even one moment that there are readers out there interested in our books ... well, you get the idea.
I've had a few weeks feeling discouraged re my writing. I think part of it is that I haven't had the time to write like I would like to have, and part of it is that I'm lacking inspiration (and I know I should just sit down and write when I hit that blank wall - and in part that's why I'm writing this blog post so at least I'm writing), and part of it is, oh I don't really know. I love my characters, I love the setting, but something hasn't quite come together for me yet. It will - and then I probably won't have enough time to get all my ideas down at once.
Meanwhile, I'll plan how to best use our limited time when we visit Australia next month because there is so much research I want to do and so many places I need to visit. (Can't you just see the look of excitement on my husband's and son's faces when I tell them my plans?). And I won't allow discouragement to win - not yet.
