If you’ve been in the writing business for any length of time, you’ve been rejected. No matter who you are, no matter how successful, someday you’re going to have one of those days when the agent passes on your manuscript, when the editor can’t find a spot for your story.

Sometimes the blow comes swiftly, but sometimes the wait is drawn-out and painful. Believe me, I know.

After a recent experience of the drawn-out and painful kind, I decided to buy myself a swift. Not that it will ease any future disappointments, but perhaps it will make me grateful for the ones that come swiftly.

[For those of you who don’t know what a swift is, see the photo below: a beautiful Swedish-made umbrella thing used for winding skeins of knitting yarn.]

William Gibson has said that novel-writing is less like childbirth than like “extreme marathon knitting.” Creation is a long game, and if you can’t handle setbacks or find joy in the process, then you won’t finish writing the story. You won’t finish knitting the sweater.

So find that joy. It’s right in front of you.