Dealing with Rejection As A Writer
Here’s a fact : If you’re a writer you’re going to get rejected.
You know this already. Every author, journalist and poet on this planet has warned you that rejection is part of the process.
It still doesn’t stop the sting when it happens.
You cry. You feel upset. You don’t know whether you want to punch the editors for being so cold over something you’ve sacrificed sleep to work on, or yourself for not writing something that’s publishable.
Trust me, I’ve been there. And I have a feeling the last time I was there wasn’t the last time.
And saying it sucks is an understatement. A big one at that.
I remember one day it had particularly hurt. I had come home from a long day at university, opened my e-mail and read the following dreaded words
‘Thank you for submitting to ___. Whilst we appreciated reading your work, unfortunately we are going to pass this time’
I closed my laptop. And screamed inside. I had just about enough.
A more puffy-eyed me opened my laptop again and looked up ‘Getting rejected as a writer’
And it hit me.
Everyone who is serious about writing has got rejected at some point in their lives.
I know. No duh.
But it hadn’t hit me properly.
William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies was rejected 21 times.
Beatrix Potter was rejected so many times she had to self-publish (and we thank God she did!)
Zen and the Art of the Motorcycle was rejected 121 times.
That’s being told 121 times no one will read your work.
Rejection is a part of the process.
Whether 5 or 500 times. We all go through it. The question is: how do we deal with it?
- Get your ego out of the way
Maybe you’re a William Golding and you need to send your masterpiece to more literary agents. Perhaps you need to find more beta-readers and listen to people when they tell you ‘Your prose sucks’ or that ‘Storyline doesn’t work’ . Either way don’t get mad at the world because they haven’t noticed you. Go out and work for it until they do.
2. Listen to Feedback
I once get a rejection letter saying ‘Nicely written but your story was too short’, and that oh, by the way ‘It lacked originality’.
I don’t know how you would react, but this is one of the rejection letters I treasured the most.
One, it meant they wanted to see more words on the page. (which going against my own piece of advice inflated my ego).
And two, you don’t have to play it safe and write stories people are a little too used to. They want you to experiment, look outside the box and create something from there.
You can take advice as a way to improve and hone your craft, or an excuse for you to stop working at it.
3. Write More
This is the most important, most surefire way to get better.
Some stories are going to look just awful when you look back.
Others are going to be okay and you just needed a little tweaking. The best thing to do in any case, is shove your ego aside and write some more.
And some more.
And some more.
And some more.
In any case, it’s what you want to do as a writer right ;)?
