by Carl Hose

Created on: November 11, 2009

Rejection is indeed a fact of the writing life. I used to keep all of my rejections. I was proud of them. Rejection meant I was writing. In order to be rejected, you need to actually send your work out into the world. Sending your work out into the world is the only way to find acceptance. I no longer keep my rejections. There have simply been too many of them. Along with those rejections, I've published extensively.

Different writers have different ways of handling rejection. Even today, after publishing my work in numerous magazines and anthologies, I feel the same way. I'm proud of the rejections. I don't need my rejections to remind me I'm working, but the occasional rejection reminds me that I still have to keep perfecting my craft. I try to take something positive from each rejection. I get fewer rejections these days, and the ones I do get often include personal notes from editors. The notes are typically positive and constructive.

Many writers are depressed by rejections. They take rejections as a personal assault against their ability to write. Behaving this way in the face of rejection is self defeating. If you want to write, no amount of rejection should be allowed to change that. Right up front, you should prepare yourself for the reality that you will have work rejected. It doesn't so much have to do with the quality of your work as the number of writers you're going up against. There is limited publishing space. Somebody has to be rejected. Sticking with it is the key to success. The rejections do decrease over time, as your writing becomes better, as you build publishing credits and display the ability to work in the writing business. It's the writer's way of paying dues, and that's exactly how you need to look at it.

No one can tell you how to handle rejection. For some people, writer or not, rejection will always bring about a negative reaction. Some people are simply too sensitive. If you're one of those people, writing is probably not the career choice for you. If you can develop a thick skin and keep writing in the face of rejection, there is not only a good chance you'll find success in this line of work, but you will find enough success to allow you to make a living doing what you enjoy doing, which is making magic out of words.

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