Validation

Writers, like others in the "entertainment" industry, are quite often tremulous souls seeking validation. The ones with big egos are the ones seeking the most validation, in my humble opinion.

What is validation? Of course, it comes from people reading your stuff and liking it. Here's the problem. The first people who read are usually friends and relatives. Boy, are they easy on you! The second level comes from strangers who read and like. Join a workshop group and some very nice people, writers themselves therefore seeking validation, say your stuff is good (or even great). What is their motive? Possibly to get you on their side so that you are nice in return, providing them their second layer of validation.

The third layer of validation comes from editors and publishers. They don't know you from your dog and seem to be very willing to tell you your writing is not worthy. But, sometimes they do find it worthy and there you are in print (virtual or paper).

Is that the end? Can you claim validation victory once published? Not necessarily. Has the accepted piece been wandering about from publisher to publisher like Moses seeking the promised land? Did you get several nopes before you got a yup? Maybe those first few that rejected are right and that last editor just lacked anything else to put up on their website ezine.

This is what I've been pondering lately. Something that probably occurs to every writer at some point. When do you get enough validation? Probably never.