Dealing with Rejection in Writing: An Experience

I haven't submitted hundreds of articles to publishers or magazines, but I've still had my share of rejections, even just after an initial query. I try to think positive about the situation, to believe in my writing, but dealing with rejection is one of the harder parts of the writer's profession. Some of us lack the talent, but is talent really needed? I think the old adage of "99 percent perspiration 1 percent inspiration" applies best to the writing field. Writing down an idea in your notebook is just the beginning.

I know I'm not the most talented writer. Still, I have improved from those initial stories I sent out. One of the first places I ever submitted to is Glimmer Train, which publishes short fiction and pays $700 for published fiction. I submitted a couple stories that were just terrible; now I wonder why I had the gall to send them out at all. It was important that I submitted in the first place: I would have had no chance if I hadn't submitted them.

I learned another old story in the field of writing: Always study your markets. I hadn't even picked up a copy of Glimmer Train, and I sent them a few genre stories that would be intended for horror anthologies or "Asimov's Science Fiction."

Those were the beginnings of many lessons on the craft of writing. I stopped submitting after these initial rejections. All I did was submit one story to a Rock Star Games short story award-I didn't win.

I was dealing with the initial rejections even the most talented writers have faced. I recently conducted an interview with Evan Kuhlman, who happened to win the short story award for new writers that Glimmer Train holds. He said it took him over ten tries to get published there, and he's a writer of immense talent.

I had trouble dealing with these rejections. I thought of doing other things, perhaps majoring in business or finding a forestry job. I always came back to the field of writing-usually the writing of fiction.

A new trick I learned was to go to writing groups. It makes sense now, but before I feared it. Here I honed my stories, and practiced getting better. To this day I haven't had a story published, but I just hate dealing with rejection. When I found newspapers, it was a market I thought would be appealing. I was right. I did experience a few failures there, the most devastating being fired from a minor job at a leading paper. Again, I thought my career was over. I didn't know how to handle rejection.

I learned to write every day, even if it was just in a journal. It provided the thesis for my later successes.

Since I had dealt with rejection, I had this mindset that it was me against the world. I played the role of underdog, knowing most of the writings I would create would be rejected. It had to be one of the odder reactions to rejection ever.

There are few happy endings in the fields of fiction: You either make it or you don't. Some of us don't start writing until we're 40 and have all the life experiences to write ten novels about. It seems that rejection will always be a part of a writers life, but if you don't submit a piece at all your chances are even lower.