Submissions and The Sting of Rejection.



The Sting of Rejection!



In the writing industry, submitting is a necessary evil, and her sister is rejection. We pour hours and hours of blood, sweat, and tears into our work, our perfectly placed prose and polishing our stories. What do we get for all that hard work? Even if you are published the chance for a rejection letter is always there, so I know you can relate to the sting of rejection.

I was going to approach this subject last week, but the tenderness of a recent rejection letter (my second in just a few months) was just too fresh and my blog would probably have been a tear stained blurry negative mess. Not really, I’ve had enough of those nasty form letters that they no longer bring me to tears, but still, frustration definitely looms over my aura. When I get a rejection, if I could just move more quickly past the constant questioning of my ability to write, I believe I could recover more quickly, but I guess a couple of days isn’t too much to ask for grieving over a rejected story. I need to get past the beating myself up stage.



Oh no! Another rejection!



If it weren’t for my friends who keep encouraging me to keep writing and submitting, I’d probably let those bad boogers trip me up, but I refuse to give in. I couldn’t stop even if I wanted to; I know my brain wouldn’t stop creating characters, worlds and stories. So, I allowed myself to wallow in self pity for a full day and a half, then I started to examine why I thought the story may have been rejected. Turning my focus back to my writing helps me get back on the road to recovery quickly. I have to remember to tell myself how long it took for some very famous authors to finally get published. I have to tell myself that it wasn’t necessarily my writing the editor didn’t like; it could just have been a story premise. So I will take another look at my story and see if I can make it better……..and submit it to someone else.

Without submissions there would be no published books or stories. It’s part of the process. And if you receive a rejection letter, allow yourself some grievance time, and then move on. Do not let these detour your dream. Get back to writing and get back to submitting. Perhaps you will be lucky enough to get the kind of rejection letter that gives you advice on what that particular editor thought about your story and giving you the opportunity to revise and submit. Do it! Whatever it takes!
So what is your advice on submitting and rejections? How do you handle getting back into writing after having a story turned away? Do you turn to chocolate? Martinis? Lots of tears? Covers over the head? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Good luck to all with your submissions and I truly hope your next response is “Consider your story sold!”

Wendy