We all face rejection.
It’s a fact of life. Nobody gets
everything they want, even if they seem like they do. As a writer, or someone who struggles to be a
writer, we face it with every word we type.
How we handle the constant stream of rejection letters and just straight-up
snubs can play a crucial part in our writing.
Here’s a few ways to handle rejection, and you can apply it to any area
of life where rejection is a constant factor.
1.
Give Up
So, you’ve written the best piece of
writing ever. You’ve sent it out to all
the publishers you can think of, and even a few agents. This is going to be your big break.
You check your inbox everyday for three
months. Finally, you see it. A reply.
With a tight smile on your lips, you click the email.
“Thank
you for Submitting. Unfortunately, the
novel you’ve spent three years writing does not suit us at this time…”
Well,
a week later, you get another reply.
“Thank you for Submitting. Unfortunately, the novel you’ve spent three
years writing does not suit us at this time…”
And
then a week later, you get this.
“Thank
you for Submitting. Unfortunately, the
novel you’ve spent three years writing does not suit us at this time…”
In
the world of writing, consider yourself lucky if you get that much of a reply. There are, after all, a thousand other
writers submitting to the same houses (or more, I’ll pulled that figure out of
the air, but you get the idea) so what are the odds they’re going to pick your
story? I don’t know, to tell you the
truth. But if you’re not ready for a constant
stream of rejection letters, then give up.
At least the slush piles the editors wade through will be shallower, and
they can send me my rejection notice that much quicker.
You
might want to remember this, though. It
took Jack Kerouac ten years to get On the
Road published. Sure, he went
through a few drafts along the way, but it got published and he became a literary
star. I’m not saying this will happen to
you, but I will say it won’t happen if you give up. That’s a certainty.
2.
Come At It From A Different Angle
You’ve sent the same story out to twenty
publishers, and every one of them sent you a rejection (or just never replied
- I hate those the most). This is the time to sit back and re-read your
story. If you’ve sent it out to that
many publishers, I can only imagine you’ve had time to put it away and forget
about it (which is helpful to do before sending it in the first place). By this time, reading your story should be
like reading it for the first time. You’ll
see what makes sense and what doesn’t. You’ll
catch typos that, somehow, even after reading it a hundred times, you somehow
missed. Or you’ll that one paragraph you
loved so much doesn’t move the story at all, and doesn’t add anything to
it.
When you’re too
close to a story, you’re blinded by it.
You see things that aren’t really there, or miss things that are there. It’s like not seeing the forest for the trees. If you love writing enough to want to have it
published, you’re going to have to put the work in. I know writers who re-work a story twenty
times before sending it out. They change
perspective, write it from different points of view, switch main characters. All just to see which works best for the
story before ever sending it out. You’d
be surprised how much better your story can be, if work at it from a different
angle.
The worst that
will happen is you’ll get another rejection notice.
3.
Get Angry
Who do these editors think they are anyway? Don’t they see how ingenious my story is? I’ve got themes upon themes, in this. Symbolism you’d have to be blind not to see! I’ve touched upon the isolation of the common
man and the unity of societal woes
all in under 5000 words!
This is gold
baby! Pure gold!
Who
knows why the editor didn’t pick your story.
Could be it just didn’t fit in with the theme of their issue or publication. Could be they filled their quota before they
even read your world changing manifesto.
Or, it’s possible, and even likely, they just didn’t like your
story.
Let
that sink in. They didn’t like your
story.
It
happens. It happens a lot.
There
are an infinite number of writers out there, all trying to break into the same small
market as you. In a field where everyone
is doing their damnedest to stand out, to be seen and heard, your story has to
scream and shout and then, maybe you’ll have the ball thrown to you.
Anger
can help. If you use it
constructively. Don’t let it eat you up,
and don’t let it make you throw your laptop through the window. Use the energy anger gives you to write your
story and to make it shine.
One
of the rules for writing is to show, not tell.
It gives the page an energy that keeps the reader reading. Keeps them from getting bored. Anger is conducive. Let it flow onto the page.
And
if you still get rejected?
Throw
the story out the window, and start again.
Angrier, this time.
4.
Get Sad
Sadness has an energy to it, too, and it
can be just as useful. Put these
emotions into your characters. What does
your character do when they are sad? Do
they cry, or become withdrawn and sullen?
Think about
it.
If you want the
characters you’re writing about to have depth, to really pop off the page and
into the mind of the reader, they need to have range. Think of all the emotions you go through in
one day. Or even just a few hours. All the highs and lows. How do you express them? Probably in different ways to different
people. So should your characters.
I’m
not saying your characters need to be a copy of you. In fact, they probably shouldn’t be,
depending on what it is you’re writing.
What I’m saying they need to feel real.
Emotional highs and lows, and how your characters handle them, go a long
way into showing, not telling, who a character is, and why we should give a
damn.
Don’t
let sadness at being rejected get in the way of your writing. Use it.
Harness it. As a writer, you have
to you use all your resources. Sadness
is just another tool in the shed. Pull
it out when you need it.
5.
Get Even
So, you’ve been rejected by every publisher
you can find. You’ve written story after
story, polishing your prose and sharpening your writing skills, and still, no
one wants to let you in the writer’s clubhouse.
You’ve
given up, tried different angles, got mad, and then broke down and got sad.
Well,
now it’s time to get even.
“How
do I do that?” you ask.
I’ll
tell you how.
Start
writing on your own terms. Don’t wait
for the approval of the literary magazines or publishing houses. Don’t even worry about being published. Just write and write and write. Write the best you can.
We’re in the age
of do it yourself writing. We have
avenues for writers our predecessors never had.
Self-publishing has existed for as long as the printing press has, or
longer, if you count cave paintings (unless those guys were commissioned) but
never have writers been able to reach such a massive audience.
I’m not saying self-publishing is for
everybody. You’re most likely not going
to get rich or offered a movie deal. The
chances of those things happening are slim, even if you get a book deal through
a publishing house. There’s also a
certain level of cache at being accepted by one of the major publishing houses you
don’t get from self-publishing.
But now the big
houses are looking more and more to self-published writers who make a name for
themselves. You still have to do the
work, just about all of the heavy lifting, but self-publishing is becoming more
and more a viable option. If you want to
get even, then a successfully self-published book is about the best way to do
it.
And if you don’t
make a dime off your self-published book?
Well, you’re not in
this for the money, are you?
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