Crickets and Tumbleweeds: The Rejected and Dejected Writer
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There are certain times in any creative person’s life when nothing validating is going on outside of their interior world.
Rejections on everything we send out to publishers, agents, editors, bloggers, magazines etc. return to us like poisonous boomerangs with messages meant to be encouraging but never really are:
“Thank you for thinking of us and even though we read your work with much interest, we feel it’s not a good fit for our publication/publisher/agency and wish you the best of luck of finding a home for it elsewhere. But do try us again…”
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Chances are that this is sent to everyone they reject whether they read your work with much or no interest.
The hardest rejections are the ones where they actually send a personal email or letter stating how much they enjoyed and loved your work. But…nah, they’re not taking it. Ouch!
And then there are the others who don’t send a rejection at all. In fact, they are silent and the writer is left with false hopes thinking that their work is still being considered with at least a little interest.
Time to hit the “pause” button in your soul and to remember the adage that all good creative writing books tell you about rejected work: “it’s not you that’s being rejected, it’s the story.”
That’s a quick balm to ease the soreness at least initially, and we can also read about the many famous writers whose works were rejected multiple times before hitting it big (Stephen King = 30 times, Dr. Seuss = 27 times, etc.).
But that doesn’t really, really help because it’s our work that is being relegated to obscurity, and not those authors who are well beyond this phase of crickets and tumbleweeds.
And so like any heartbreak, here are some other and more prevailing strategies for getting through those tough times when our stories are unloved, unappreciated and unpublishable over and over again.
–Put away the story for a time and work on other stories or simply free write or write in your journal (but write something!).
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–When you’re ready and a bit removed emotionally from the rejected work, analyze why the story is constantly being rejected. Perhaps you are sending it out to the wrong people and publications.
–If you are in a writers’ group or have trusted allies who are good readers and will give you honest feedback, have them read the story for their opinions on its strengths and weaknesses.
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–If the story needs more work, then go to it! Send it out again, even to the places that rejected it before if you strongly feel that it should be published there.
–Rejected again? Well, if you, the writer, feel that it is still a good enough story, but it’s the marketplace that is simply not appreciating what you are offering, then consider self-publishing (I’ll be writing more blogs about that explosive subject in the very near future).
–But whatever you do about trying to publish, don’t give up the writing itself. Even in the times of drought and hopelessness, there is still a deep well in your creative soul that needs nurturance and attention. Keep writing!
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Here’s a link to those famous writers whose works were rejected numerous times. It’s worth a glance at least and then move on to your own work:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/stmartinspress/20-brilliant-authors-whose-work-was-initially-reje-7rut
Writing Wisdom:
“Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”–Harriet Beecher Stowe, American Novelist, Activist.
Cheers, Irene
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Irene Zabytko is the author of the novel about Chernobyl, THE SKY UNWASHED (Algonquin), and the short story collection, WHEN LUBA LEAVES HOME (Algonquin).
