Stephen King’s Lesson on Embracing Failure

While reading Stephen King’s book On Writing, I was impressed by how he dealt with failure in his teenage years.

King submitted manuscripts to various magazines for publication, and many publishers rejected his drafts. But that didn’t deter him from continuing to write. In his book, King writes:

When I got the rejection slip from AHMM, I pounded a nail into the wall above the Webcor, wrote “Happy Stamps” on the rejection slip, and poked it onto the nail. Then I sat on my bed and listened to Fats sing “I’m Ready.” I felt pretty good, actually. When you’re still too young to shave, optimism is a perfectly legitimate response to failure. By the time I was fourteen (and shaving twice a week whether I needed to or not) the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the nail with a spike and went on writing.

This resonates with me because I sometimes shy away from sharing my work, fearing the criticism I might receive. However, King’s story reminds me that failure is an inevitable step in a creative journey, not the end of one.