You Don’t.
Failure is all very well and good, right? You learn from your mistakes, you grow as a person, you get stronger, better, wiser.
Not going to disagree.
But here’s the flip side. Failure has consequences. They may be minor (here’s hoping!) or catastrophic. The consequences may be financial, or a loss of time, energy, heart, motivation and faith in your yourself.
The writing gig is chock-full of failure. Stories that go nowhere, rejections from agents and publishers, books that don’t sell… It almost feels like we set ourselves up for failure. By declaring ourselves writers, we stake our ground: I will fail!
So how do we cope with the consequences? How do we pay our bills or find time to write or continue to believe in ourselves?
The short answer is perseverance. When you feel like your writing life is mired in failure, you just keep going.
The long answer is eyes-wide-open. When you can see the potholes coming you can brace yourself. When you anticipate the consequences, you can prepare. And then repeat after me: Failure sucks. You don’t.