When Your Writing Is Rejected

Yes or No? What will she say? Or is it, what will he say?

Yesterday, my Guest Blogger, Molly Flowers, gave a case for rejection. She had a viewpoint that many writers may not have considered before. Lots of food for thought. If you didn't have an opportunity to read it, check it out here.

The silhouette image above shows a man and woman, one of whom may have to deal with rejection. It's difficult to determine which one is the rejector and which the rejectee! It doesn't matter because rejection still hurts, no matter who is the recipient. These two people are not writer and editor, but most likely a couple about to break up. Haven't most of us been there at some time in our life? Were you the one to who hurt the other one, or were you the person who got hurt? If you've lived a few decades, you might have been on both sides at different moments. Maybe you wondered if you'd even live through the situation. You began to doubt yourself as a person. You didn't want to try for another relationship. Not ever again! 

Guess what? A writer who receives a rejection after submitting his/her work has many of the same emotions. Thoughts run through your mind, one tumbling over another. Things like:  That stupid editor doesn't know a good thing when he sees it. I'll never submit another piece. Not ever! Who needs to be hurt like that? I must be the world's worst writer. What's wrong with me? We all go through it. Get the thoughts out and then move on.

Once you're over the pity party (oh yes, we all hold a little pity party right after the rejection comes), ask yourself some questions. 

• Did I pick the wrong market?
• Did I follow the submission guidelines carefully?
• Did I send a clean, edited copy?
• Did I proof and edit more than once?
• Was my opening one that grabbed the reader?
• Did I have more telling or more showing?
• Did I use lots of active verbs?
• Did I have a beginning, middle and ending? Or was it a jumble?
• Did I over-emote?
• Did I use similes and metaphors to bring my story to life? 
• Did I spend enough time looking for a market to submit to? 
• Did I use sensory details to make the story realistic?
• Do I need to scrap this piece or revise and submit again?
• This is an important one:  Is it possible the piece I sent is just fine but the publication couldn't use it anytime soon? That they may have published something in the same vein in recent weeks?  

When you answer the questions above, try to be objective. Attempt reading that submission as if someone else had written it. How would you critique it? 

I wouldn't suggest answering the questions above immediately after receiving the rejection. Give it a couple days before you tackle it. 

Submit the revised piece to another publication when you feel you're ready. We all know stories about very successful writers who submitted a zillion times before finding that success. So, what makes us think we're going to hit the jackpot the first time out? It can happen, but it's nor the norm. 

There's a reason I stay with my two keywords, which are patience and perseverance.

Look Ahead, Not Back

What do you do the day after you receive a rejection after submitting a query or a manuscript or short piece? We know what you probably did on the day that slap in the face arrived. You most likely deflated like a pin-pricked balloon or maybe you ranted while storming around your house. You might even have cried, especially if it was not a first-time rejection for that submission. 

It's quite alright to react in a way that helps you absorb the hurt. The disappointment and disgust--oh yes, we often feel disgusted when a rejection arrives--show that you're normal. No one in their right mind would accept a rejection with glee. 

Our poster for today has good advice. Those broken pieces of yesterday need to stay there. Don't carry them with you into today. The new day is a new beginning. Start by checking your list of places you had planned to submit to. What? You don't have a list? That means you need to take time to find multiple places where you can submit your work next. 

No one ever said the first editor you approach is going to swoop up your submission, clutch it to his/her breast and exclaim "Eureka!" Every writer knows stories of famed authors who had to submit over and over again before their work was accepted and published. Sure, we know those stories but do we apply that procedure to ourselves? Not always. Why?

It could be that it's a lot of work to turn to the submission Ferris wheel. It's also a surefire method to set yourself up for disappointment. There is no guarantee that the second time you submit your piece it will be taken. Or the third, or fourth or...  

In the writing world, very little is set in concrete. Our work is steeped in maybes. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. 

How passionate are you about getting your work published? Answer that question honestly. Then, ask yourself if you are willing to persevere until you find a degree of success. 

I think one of the hardest things we writers must do is to be honest with ourselves. When we soul search, we need to answer as objectively as possible. Easy to say, harder to do. 

Start each new day with the attitude that it is a new day and you're not going to sweep up the discards of yesterday and put them in your pocket to needle you. Look ahead with hope instead of backward with regret.