by Cody Hodge

Created on: February 17, 2009

Handling rejection is a part of life, and for a writer is almost a way of life. They say that if you haven't gotten 100 rejection letters, then you aren't a real writer yet. How you handle the numerous rejections you are bound to get says a lot about you, and what kind of career that you will have as a writer. There are many reasons why a work can be rejected, and really it is all about good timing when it comes to work being accepted.

Ironically enough, my very first piece of writing was accepted. It was to a local company, and it was very exciting. Unfortunately it was also very ego inflating as well. I thought that since my very first piece of work was accepted, every piece would, and wondered what the talk about rejection was.

Well, it took me a good three or four years before I got another piece of work accepted, and the process was a very painful one. Although I knew that rejections were going to come, and I had readied myself for them, I was still stung every time a rejection letter came to me. I put myself on a hiatus for a short time, and really had to wonder why I was a writer.

I enjoyed doing it, but it wasn't making me any money. I had a decent job at the local grocery store, or compared to my earnings as a writer it was decent. Of course I did have a degree, so I needed to make that work, so after a lot of soul searching I decided that I had to give my work a shot to be heard.

I decided that I was going to be a writer, and didn't care how many times I was going to be rejected. I really enjoyed my work, and that is the basis for any long term career. I set my expectations really low, and just started aiming to get included into anything that I could find. If the MySpace blog I had was the only way I could get published for now, well so be it, my work was going to get on somewhere.

Lo and behold, after doing some networking, I found that the Internet was the solution to my problem. There are so many opportunities to get published, and little to no chance of being rejected. With such a wide audeince, and so much to write about, I could put my work out to the world, and have it read, and critiqued without fear that no one would ever see it.

My point is that without being rejected, I would never had the chance to expand my horizons to see what was out there. If I had given up, I would have been miserable, and would never be writing today. Sure the road is long, and the rewards small at first, but you have to keep working. You can't let a few rejections get you down. If your love is writing, then keep going until you make it, and if you don't make, well at least you tried.

Never give up on your dreams, and regardless of what anybody says, you keep trying until you make it. You never know when that door will open, and opportunity will greet you. If you keep yourself open, and ready for success, you will utlimately get to live the dream of being a published writer.

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