Rejection

Usually I save every rejection form I get, but I'm not sure if this helps. They've all started to blur into one big pile of no - unless they're personal rejections. Sometimes I can move past the pain in a few minutes, and other times I wallow in self pity for a couple of days. Take last week for instance. I got a form rejection from a market I really liked. Then a few hours later, BAM: another form rejection from another market I really liked. I moped around. I cried. I sulked. I decided I would never, ever write again (yeah, right). I cried some more. Most of this I did on my mother's shoulder, or typed furiously to my sister online.

My mother's reaction was her standard reaction: it comes with the territory. You're a writer, and writers get rejections. Maybe you can write another story. My mother usually tells me the stuff I don't want to hear. Which is why I constantly have to explain to her that I'd rather feel sorry for myself for a couple of days, so I can move on. If I act all dignified and rational I'll just feel like crap inside. I don't think she believes this helps me, but she lets me cry on her shoulder, and tells me to never stop writing.



My sister on the other hand reacted the way I wanted her to react: I'm so sorry...THAT SUCKS, WHAT DO WE DO?! Ranting to her makes me feel better, even if it's mostly ridiculous.

After all this, I did some of the other stuff I do after saving rejections and crying. I sent my story out to other markets and I starting writing something else. I've read somewhere that rewarding yourself after rejection helps, so next time I'll have to try that. I figure that if I can post about getting rejected, then I'm probably past it. Which is good because I can't possibly get knocked down next time if I don't drag myself back up again.

Have you been rejected recently? How do you deal with it?

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