But this is a writing blog, so let's focus on Rejection Slips: Dang! I've got a lot of those. I should wallpaper my bedroom so that all the ladies I bring home can read them.
This is a good thing.
It's old by now, but you can't go four steps on the Writing Internet without running across somebody who got a piece published after 84 rejections. And you can't read a biography without ferreting out from between the lines that One Day of Luck that explains the rest. Luck is the 1% that makes the 99% pay.
Fortunately, by all accounts it doesn't take a lot of luck to make it as a writer.
Rejection means I'm trying. And caring about rejection motivates me when I don't want to try anymore. When it's no fun and I'm feeling demotivated, I can just look at a rejection form and say "well, dammit, I'll show them!" and keep trying. If I were feeling pithy, I'd say that the only person who can reject you is yourself.
I'm going to go so far as to say that I Love Rejection. Especially brutal rejection, fast and to the point. "You, sir, are a Bad Writer, you should feel bad about that piece, and here's WHY: 1,2,3." Wham! Reaction! "Well, try this one!" Until They Stop Being Brutal. They're the ones with the money, I'm the one with the talent. We can have a beautiful relationship.
I've had a lot of experience with rejection, but I've also had a lot of experience getting what I want by blatant stubbornness. Not the jackass kind, but the smart stubborn that molds itself into the right shape to get through the obstacle. That sees the obstacle as a challenge all of its own.
That is to say, it's not doing the work that's hard, it's getting the work in the first place.
And being rejected a million times plus one is not the same as being rejected every time.
+-+Europa+Base.jpg)
I am fascinated by the idea of human colonization of Europa (and Ceres). It just seems like it'd be fun to be from a small-town moon (minor planet).
Anyways, if there's life there I say we eat it and steal its Unobtainium.
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500 words? Yes
Book "Lived Too Long To Die" - in progress (~9/100)
Good post--I've been getting a bunch of rejections lately, and it's pretty disheartening. Writing's the one thing I feel I have any talent with, and typically makes up what I do in the vast majority of my free time. So it sucks to never get a single publication wanting anything I write, you know?
ReplyDeleteWell, I did what I try to always do nowadays... sent the stories off to new places (after tweaking some of them).
Oh, it'll happen eventually. Everything does, given enough time.
ReplyDeleteI find rejection relaxing. Thanks to getting rejected, I know two of those pieces need to be tweaked. But one of those two has official Promise. Classy.