Your Stories are Bad and You Should Feel Bad

Rejection

Boys and girls, steel your testes and/or ovaries ‘cause today we’re going to talk about something big and important. Rejection!

Rejection is one of those things that just... happens a lot in the authorial world. (Heck, just the other day I asked your mom’s sugar daddy if I could take a walk in her cavernous interior, and he said no. I sent him a postcard from there anyway.)

When you are attempting to become a writer of sorts, you have to face a few major challenges. Some of these are personal, such as the hurdles of learning the intricacies of grammar or story creation. Others are a little less personal, such as reading or writing goals on Wattpad. One of the greatest challenges comes from the commercial world.

Writing is not a commercial venture. It is an art. Therefore, it is not easy to sell for many reasons. Notably, because you’re not delivering anything physical or worthwhile to anyone accept ideas and perhaps a little entertainment.

Other forms of rejection might not be quite as harsh. You can expect to be refused admittance into some groups or have your stories fail the challenge of being featured on sites like Wattpad that endorse such programs.

What should you come to expect?

I have seen and known too many promising writers quit before reaching full maturity, all because they could not handle the constant rejections.

I’ll try to soften the fall, but only because I’m such a gorgeous, altruistic saint. You had bloody well better appreciate it:

There are some thing you should know and prepare yourself for.

You are going to fail.

Hands down, no exceptions. Even someone as beautiful and prestigious as me has failed once or a hundred times. Learn to expect it. Stop day-dreaming all the time about your success, because it will not arrive, and if it does, it will never be in the form you expected it to.

If you expect it and prepare yourself mentally, it won’t sting quite as much. That’s not to say that you won’t go burying your face in the nearest bosom to cry, but it will help a little.

Take a break.

I’m a no-breaks kind of guy. I don’t stop at stop signs, red lights are optional, and I disabled the safety on my microwave, because non-ionized radiation is for chumps. Still, when I get slapped across the face by a rejection, I take some time off to do important things, like catch up to all the cat videos I missed on Youtube. Or, I read.

It’s part of my shared experience that taking a quick pause after a rejection can get you going again and help you to cope. If you never stop and distract yourself, the nagging little voices in the back of your head will only ever get louder. Shut them up with banality.

Don’t take it personally.

Always remember this one fact: It’s not YOU that was rejected, but your work. The work that you poured ever quintessential part of your soul, talent, experience and skill into.

Rejection means that despite all that effort, you’re not good enough. So stop whining about it, admit that you still suck (a little) and start sucking (a little) less.

Whine about it.

I’m not certain of the science behind it. But, it is a proven fact that whining like a little bastard about something for hours on end makes the boo-boos go away, at least a little. Try it, but don’t whine in my general vicinity because I don’t want to hear your shit.

Finally, try again.

Shit won’t get better. But if you touch up your work, make it shinier, and then try again elsewhere, there’s always a tiny, tiny chance that you won’t be rejected. That’s the vague hope you need to strive for.

Keep warm, stay cool.