REJECTION by Gerri Brousseau

Since childhood we have been conditioned to accept rejection.  As children we were told "No" countless times.  Do you recall when, as a child, you asked if you could go to a movie with your friends or perhaps if you could sleep over a friend's house and your mother said no?  Did you simply say to yourself, "oh ok" … and leave it at that?  NO WAY JOSE.  You begged, pleaded, cajoled, and tormented your parental figure hoping against hope that if you asked continually, they would finally give in.  They hardly ever did, yet did that stop us from our constant nagging and begging.  No.

As we grew to adulthood, however, we somehow lost that tenacity.  We grew to realize that our parents hardly ever changed their edict and we lost the will to fight the good fight.  As adults we simply grew to accept No as No.  Yet, after reading Jennifer Fusco's post on her blog at "Market or Die" (8/13/11 – "We Are All Puppies"), I started to think about applying that childlike tenacity toward getting my writing published.

I recently read that John Grisham had received over 30 rejection letters on his first novel, "A Time to Kill."  Imagine if he said, "Oh, ok  Maybe I'm not a writer after all"?  I saw on TV recently Kathryn Stockett could not get an agent to represent her first novel, a little book you may have heard of called, "The Help"

… and the list goes on.  My point being these published authors acted in childlike faith and held on with the tenacity of a pit bull and forged onward until they got their work published.  Yes, they wrote well, they told a great story; but how many great stories are written that will never see publication simply because the author gave up too early?

I have taken to writing on slips of paper that my novel(s) is/are published and have attached these little slips of paper to the mirror in my bedroom … why you may ask?  Take a look on the side mirrors on your car.  Do you see the writing that says "Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear."  I have made a conscious decision now to behave like a child, holding on to the begging, pleading, cajoling, tormenting with the tenacity of a pit bull and hope against hope … my novels get published.

Where would we be if the John Grisham's, JK Rowling's, Kathryn Stockett's, and Steven King's of this world gave up one rejection too soon?  Every author had to write their first novel.  Every single one of us has had to suffer the bitter taste of rejection.  But, if we hold on and do not give up too soon we will taste the sweet taste of success.  I want to be among those who have held on and succeeded. Remember, success is closer than it appears.

Gerri Brousseau

Filed under: romance