by Charlie Danger

Created on: July 10, 2010

      If you have written anything and I mean anything which is subject to review by anyone else be it a teacher, professor, production company, editor, or publisher chances are that you have faced some rejection. No need to worry rejection is normal in the world of any author and you can actually learn from these rejections more than you can from a piece which has every reader going gaga over juicy pages of literature gold. As the saying goes "it does not matter that you have made mistakes as long as you learn from those mistakes" or even better "what you do after the mistakes you have made is more important than what you have done to get there." With that said I will quickly explain what you should do after rejection.

     First you must find out why the piece has been rejected if it is not obvious to you what is not liked about what you have done. If you have no idea where you have gone wrong then you will not be able to correct your errors and improve your craft. So if you can not see where you have gone wrong ask the person or company to explain in great detail exactly why they did not like what you have written, tell them to be as descriptive as possible and include as many details as it takes to explain what went wrong. Next you must make sure you understand what went wrong. Is the editor right? Did he just misunderstand the piece? Chances are that he/she is right and if they are you must take steps to understand where you went wrong and improve your writing by pouring over each detail that ran foul and clarifying anything which has been viewed as unclear. Rework sentences, switch paragraphs around, and improve any punctuation mistakes until all things are clear and concise.

     Now that you have a reworked version of your original you are a step ahead of where you started last time when you were waving inferior versions of your piece in the faces of prospective publishers, teachers or whomever the governing body may be to which you are presenting your work for approval. Go back to the same publishers and twice as many if it is a book, if this is for school try to get a better grade out of this new improved version and explain to your teacher that you know you have a lot to learn and you are trying your hardest to learn everything they have to teach you this is especially important if you have a pass/fail situation in front of you. Post the thing on a blog and include it as part of your resume if it is part of a job interview. The fact that you have posted it online will add validity to your application status. Simply put go to the ends of the earth to make whomever is concerned know that you can and will do better in the future.

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