So, for the first writing rant, I want to discuss rejection.
If you want to be a writer, (not just write stories.) rejection is as common as carpal tunnel, cold beer and ass-in-chair.
It's the necessary crucible in which we all must go through to improve our writing AND to climb up the rungs of our writing career.
Now, I will admit. It's going to hurt at first. Anyone who knows me, is well aware what a sensitive soul and due to a life-time of self-doubt and lack of self-esteem, it's taken me a couple years to get used to rejection.
Where I used to get all depressed and question my ability, drink a gallon of hooch and pray to the writing gods for their diving providence. (They never did answer that call, btw.)
That got me no where. So, after several great conversations with fellow writers and my mentors, I developed a new philosophy toward the concept of rejection.
The first thing that happens when I open that ill-fated email that says the same "Thank you for your submission but we've decided to pass on your story at this time. Best of luck." I do still get a bit bummed out. I can still sense those dark-winged demons of negative self-talk and insidious doubt, flitting in the sharp corners of my office. I allow them their twenty-four hours of dancing the "Oh poor is me" Jig. Then, I tell them to pack rock salt and hit the highway.
Then, the awareness that that fact that I even got a rejection was a positive thing. YES, a POSITIVE thing. By that I mean, if I get a rejection, that means I am SUBMITTING work. I am working on my craft and I am putting myself out there. That is something we all must do if we wish to be published authors.
The second thing I do is read back through the work and kill every darling I can find and send it back out to my amazing Beta-Readers. (Look more on Beta-Readers in a future blog post.)
I go through their edits and every single red pen mark. Everything they have to say, I listen and go through the manuscript and polish the hell out of the story.
I now, use all the rejections, edits I receive as golden opportunities to make my craft and stories as good as they can be.
This is a quick blog post, but why should I spend tons of time on this subject? It's simple. We write. We submit. We get accepted. We get rejected. We rewrite and resubmit or put the tale aside of it hasn't found a home after many attempts. Then, we move on to our next writing project. It's that simple.
I allow myself 24 hours (at the most) to feel crappy, then I read the rejection again, use it as motivation and sit my big arse back down in my office chair and get back to makin' with the words.
Bottom line" Rejection is inevitable. The answer: Make it damn hard from them to reject you. That's all, any of us can do.
Now, Ass-in-Chair my friends. Don't forget, Rejection isn't the end of your writing, it's the beginning!
Thanks for stopping by and keep an eye out for my next writing rant.
Now, don't let the door hit ya, where the good lord split ya.
All the best,
TAE.
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