Epistle to The Griots Who Speak in Ink
Every griot of ink has a bestseller at first until the manuscript is completed. You tell yourself, surely I'd be swimming in offers from publishers and it's a matter of picking the right one but it becomes a different story entirely when after your sweat, your time, and your very all is put into this story and you're not getting as much as a look in from even an Indie publisher with a blogspot address and a home office. But you persevere and remind yourself of all the famous writers who made it big after getting rejected countless times, you tell yourself you could be the next Stephen King. Months go by. A year goes by. Years go by still barely a hundred copies sold (mostly to your family and friends) and you begin to believe that maybe it was a pipe dream all along and that ex was right, you'd never become a big time author, you'd never have that bestseller you've always dreamed about... but what if it's not a pipe dream, what if you were right all along, you'd never know unless you keep pushing to achieve those dreams you've talked and fantasized about with your best friend at 2A.M in the morning.
To every creative, Writer grief and depression is a thing, sometimes you wonder where you're really headed and it scares the shit out of you that things are not working out the way it all did in your head when you first started off, after all you had the perfect plan, the perfect manuscript that once completed should be adapted into a movie in a few years.
Sometimes you wonder if you made a mistake by choosing this path of writing, this cursed path of the pen, inked with rejection and etched with sorrow at every juncture.
Sometimes you wonder if you're actually half as talented as you always thought yourself to be or has it just been your Hubris stringing you on all along. It all seems like a cruel joke at first that the manuscript which you had such high hopes for, the manuscript which you've put your heart and soul into, the manuscript which you thought would kickstart your career, the manuscript which you thought would take you places has been rejected at every opportunity, by every publishing house you've contacted.
At this point you're resigned to your "fate" and you've also come to believe that the work which was supposed to be your magnum opus is trash. That is when you really have failed.
To every creative out there; never give up, never give in, your mind is your greatest weapon so never stop dreaming; that big break is coming, just much later than you would have liked but it's still coming all the same.
About the Writer: Haské is a modern-day griot and creative strategist whose journey began at 13. Inspired by fables, legends, and music, his work bridges culture, community, and craft. As an aspiring author, Haské brings a reflective, soul-stirring voice to themes of perseverance, identity, and the quiet resilience of artists.
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