While any sort of creative writing failure can be very stressful, upsetting, and disheartening, the greatest thing you can do in this scenario is to flip things on their head, i.e. turn this experience into one that is positive and shapes better projects in the future. It may seem like the end of the world, but if you can learn from your mistakes, it will make a huge difference to your career as a writer going forward. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the lessons of project failure: 

    1. Never stop learning – It does not matter how many years of experience you have, you should never stop learning. There are always new techniques and technologies making an impact in the writing industry. Have you tried novel writing software, for example? If not, something like this could be just the thing you need to have greater success with your future endeavors. New encounters always bring about new lessons.
    2. Be realistic with your objectives – Did you set yourself up for failure? How can you use hindsight to rework your future goals so that they are more achievable and hence successful?
    3. Strengthen your weakest links – When a project fails, it is important to determine where you have gone wrong and address these weak links. After all, when everything is going swimmingly, it can be very difficult to determine whether your methodologies are really working for you. However, when things start to go wrong, this will become a lot clearer. Use this to your advantage. For example, if your project went wrong because of poor time-management, you can work on addressing this first. Perhaps your final project had too many errors? This indicates that you need to address the proof-reading process.
    4. How is your next project going to be different? – This is the key question you need to ask yourself. How are you going to make your next project different from this one? This will help you to unlock creative solutions for the future. 
    5. Don’t be too hard on yourself – This might be the most important one of all! We’re all guilty of being a bit hard on ourselves from time-to-time. Accepting responsibility is important, and it is something we will discuss in one of the next sections. However, don’t punish yourself or convince yourself that you’re never going to come out with the next big book. It is all about learning. The greatest minds and creators of today often had to face failure to get where they are now. You can use this as inspiration to drive you to achieve success in your next project.
    6. Take time to breathe and find inspiration – When we put pressure on ourselves, it can often create an even bigger mental block. This is why it makes sense to go outdoors and take some time to experience life and what is around you. This can inspire creativity and help you to tackle your next project with a fresh mind and outlook.
    7. Take responsibility – Last but not least, take responsibility for what has happened. Don’t shift the blame. Accepting responsibility will put you in the right frame of mind to learn what has happened. Taking responsibility is ultimately empowering!

Use the tips that have been mentioned above to turn a project failure into a lesson. By doing this, you can ensure that you do not repeat your mistakes again in the future. From taking responsibility to strengthening your weakest links, there are always some great lessons to be made. 

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