by Kenneth Andrews

Created on: January 23, 2012

The ritual of rejection is well-rehearsed. A letter flutters to rest on your doormat, the envelope too thin to contain a bulky contract. Or, more recently, an email arrives in your inbox with a pointed lack of a PDF attachment containing the digital version of that contract. Your heart sinks, it's a rejection, of course it's a rejection. But it might not be! Surely this time you sent the perfect manuscript, tailored to the exact needs of this particular publisher? Perhaps it's not a rejection letter at all, but a cheque!

With trembling fingers, you open the envelope or click on the message. You begin to read, deluding yourself even as you recognise the word 'regret' that this could be the piece of correspondence which will change your life.

But no, it's a rejection. Of course. And what a crushing disappointment it is, even though it was more than half expected. How do you keep writing after this?

Intellectually, all writers know that rejection is an integral part of writing, and that they should not take it personally. On an emotional level, however, it's a bitter pill to swallow. In other words:

"Yes, I know all writers encounter rejection, but that shouldn't apply to me because I'm secretly the greatest talent the world has ever known." This is the secret thought that lies at the heart of all unpublished writers, even if they will never admit it.

All writers are rejected at some point in their professional career, but it is the way in which this rejection is handled which separates the real writers from the wannabes.

How do you keep writing despite rejection? Well, you just put finger to keyboard or pen to paper and get on with it. If you take rejection to heart and give up writing, then the chances are that your heart was never really in it anyway.

A real writer will take a rejection letter and, after the initial disappointment (which is totally normal and understandable), will use it as a challenge. To learn from mistakes, and to produce better work in future. They will take into account any detailed criticism in the rejection (these days this is often very brief, unfortunately), and make a point of never making the same mistakes again.

This analytical approach helps many writers to develop professionally, as it entails responding to the criticism of publishers - which is the only criticism worth taking seriously if you are looking to make money from writing. But rejection is always a disappointment, so many writers also deal with it

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