Rejection!

Ah, that sweet, familiar sting of rejection.

So… an upbeat blog post, then?

While disappointment is a fact of life in many professions (and, indeed, most people’s dating history), but it seldom hurts as badly as it does for the writer. That is because writers tend to go through phases in their career.

First they get super excited about writing, usually when they discover how awesome it is and how attractive it makes them to the opposite sex.^{[citation needed]} They write loads and loads and think everything they’re creating is pure literary gold.

Then they send what amounts to a very rough first draft off to agents and publishers. What follows is inevitably a string of rejection letters that leave the young writer feeling disappointed and doubting their future as a writer. If they’re dedicated, they’ll take this time to hone their craft, practice and develop as a writer (possibly for decades, depending on the writer) before they start approaching publishers and agents again.

What often follows is only more rejection, which causes the writer to retreat back into their shell and assume that they need even more time and practice. So they write more and get feedback from friends and family, take writing courses and classes. The writer becomes a sponge, soaking up any information on the written word that they can find until they have become a font of knowledge for their other writer friends (since they now belong to at least two writing groups by this point). They write on the internet, creating blogs (like this one!), and finding websites and magazines that are willing to take them on in a voluntary role. Then, equipped with years of experience and the confidence that comes with it, They head back out and start looking for agents and publishers in earnest once more…

…aaaaaaand they get rejected. Again. Because the writing profession is not one that necessarily cares about how good you are or how much time you’ve put in or even how hard you’ve worked to get there. Sure, all those things are important and, without them, you’ll never make it to the magical land of Published Authors, where the rivers run red with the ink of your editor’s correction pen. ^{[Citation Needed]}

This is a cycle that can continue forever and ever. A writer will face rejection, retreat into their creativity cocoon to fix any shortfalls pointed out in the latest round of rejections, only to emerge full of confidence and self-belief, which is then torn to shreds by a cold, uncaring industry that is just not giving them the chance they need. Because, as I’ve said before, a big part of getting published is blind, stupid, don’t-care-who-you-are luck. Until you get lucky (which will happen if you continue writing), you’ll be facing rejection after cruel rejection, which never stops being difficult to handle.

I can attest to this because I’m currently right smack in the middle of a “rejection” phase of being a writer. This year, I’ve already received double the number of rejection letters as I did in 2015 without actually receiving a non-rejectiony type letter (its been so long since I got one that I’ve forgotten the word). However, I’ve also sent out around triple the number of queries so I’m not too upset about the increase.

That’s a lie. I’m still totally upset, because as confident as I like to pretend I am, I am riddled with all the insecurities you’d expect when it comes to my writing. And as much as I’d like to think that rejection from a particular magazine or website or publisher doesn’t have an impact on me, it totally does. Every time I have to remind myself (or get my wife to remind me) not to get down and to just keep plugging away, sending out the queries and entries until I finally get lucky or good or both.

Joe Abercrombie is, as usual, exceptionally correct.

That’s where the difficult bit is, really. Taking that rejection and finding a way to be positive about it because every writer, no matter how successful or famous, has ever not had to deal with rejection. The moment you start doing something creative, it comes for you and it is never kind. The way that you deal with it, how you handle the rejection that inevitably comes when you let people who are not as kind as your family or friends will be what determines your success as a writer.