by Stan Grimes

Created on: May 06, 2008   Last Updated: September 16, 2011

How do you handle rejection? No, not rejection by your spouse or your family, but rejection from publishers.  Not easy is it? It's easy for writers to take rejection personally like someone just slapped you in the face. It hurts for a while, but the pain eventually goes away. After all, you have spent hours, days, and maybe weeks sweating over a story, an article, or perhaps a novel. It's your baby. You've nurtured it, cuddled it, and carefully monitored every word of it. How could someone reject it?

Readers seldom think about the effort of writing. That's a good thing actually. It means the writer has done his/her job well. If you have written a good article or a good story, it should be so squeaky clean that no one has to get out a dictionary or Thesaurus to figure out its meaning.

The reject, oh boy, the reader never sees it. You, the writer gets to see the big red X screaming, "you flopped." Okay, so maybe there isn't a big red X, but you get the idea. It feels like a big red X. Fortunately, the reader gets to read the articles or books that have passed the publishers' guidelines. They don't read the failures.

I just finished a novel, over fifty thousand cleverly chosen words written by moi. It was rejected. Did I have the big red X syndrome? You bet your booty I did. Fact is, the publisher rejecting my works had accepted one of my stories just recently. You can't beat that for the big red X feeling (I dare you).

Unfortunately for writers, there are no magic buttons to call in the good guys, but there are books and millions of samples out there in the literary jungle. Becoming a good writer is not easy, but learning from your mistakes is. Those who have read some of my previous articles may say that I'm being a bit redundant, but I can't emphasize it enough. That's how important education is for the writer, no, not a college education necessarily, but self-education. Educate yourselves. Read a variety of magazine articles, subscribe to as many literary newsletters out there as you can, read your newspaper, or go skydiving with an expert.

I have a saying (please remember it because I probably won't), "if writing comes easy to you then you are either plagiarizing someone's work or you're a graduate from Columbia's School of Journalism." Persevere, that is the secret. Stick with it and don't give up. Many writers have stuck with their craft even in the face of rejection and survived...so can you.

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