Previous Challenge Entry
Topic: Rejection (11/15/04)
TITLE: Rejection, the Spice of the Writing Life By Stacey-Anne Bistak 11/20/04 |
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Just as the body rejects foreign tissue or an organ during a transplant, so too it seems the writing world has its share of bodies—most likely, of editors—who seem to inherently reject any new writer tissue. Editors, I mean no offence. It’s only natural. Anyone tried, tested, and trustfully true is terrific tissue. Why bother with another donor? The whole battery of tests will need to be performed again.
Not that editors never review new material. That material is somehow never up to par with submissions from their database of donors. And, rightfully so—only the best will be selected. The rest have to earn their rejection letters like their predecessors. I think writers’ quarters are the most cramped…with rejection notes.
You look for opportunities, you research, you write, you edit, you submit—only to be rejected. It seems that we, writers, are a rejected lot. But we should consider rejection just a harmless fly on the wall; not an annoying gnat.
And sometimes, we writers reject our own writing. We demean it to the point that we consider it good for nothing. Writers, take heart! Stephen King did the same. He was rejected that he got so dejected. He thought so little of one story that he started that he crumpled it. But it’s a good thing he did not reject his wife’s advice to think otherwise. Or, he would have been $200,000 the poorer without Carrie that was published through Doubleday.
Sometimes though, we have to learn to appreciate rejections. A rejection in time saves nine. Otherwise, we would be smug wallowing in our writing faults.
But, first things first. We wouldn’t get rejected if we did not submit. So, submission is key to rejection. Rejection is good. Keep the rejections coming. It shows that you are no lazy writer. I bet the majority of published writers still get rejected. Sometimes, what you submit is just not right for the publication. Sometimes, requirements change. Sometimes editors change. All this makes you change. You learn from rejections. You learn to reject them.
We still have to reach the finishing line and the rejections are but the hurdles. There are many more to go. And, once we’ve crossed the tape, there are more finishing lines down the writing tracks. Rejections look out! Here we come. Marinate us!