Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman in The Creative Independent
Roxane Gay:
As I’ve gotten older and deeper into my career, I have found that people have a lot of conspiracy theories around publishing. And generally those conspiracy theories flourish in a void where there’s not enough information. They also flourish in a void that is created by rejection—and this just happens when you’re not yet mature enough as a writer— where you start to think, “I’m being rejected; clearly it’s a conspiracy theory because I’m brilliant.” You’re probably brilliant, but the writing may also need some work. When I used to nurture some of these conspiracy theories about, “I guess you have to know someone to get anywhere,” it’s because I wasn’t ready to consider the probability that perhaps the work wasn’t good enough. Now I look back and I know the work was not good enough. Whatever else may have been going on in terms of systemic racism, misogyny, etc., the work wasn’t ready.
I also like what Debbie has to say about seeing lots of disciplines as part of one creative life.