by Patricia Bradley, @PTBradley1
It is not the critic who counts;
not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds;
who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause;
who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
I met a writer once who kept every rejection letter she ever received. Over 10,000 letters. I was thinking about her the other day, and not just her, but all the writers out there who keep writing through rejections.
While you’ve probably never received 10,000 rejections, if you are breathing…or writing (they’re the same thing, right?), you’ve experienced rejection at some point in your life. And if you’re a writer, you’ve gotten at least one “We’re sorry, but your manuscript doesn’t meet our editorial needs at this time.”
And, if you’re a published author, I’ll bet you’ve received at least one one-star review with negative comments. Or two. So what do you do when that happens? How do you keep on writing?
I love the quote from Theodore Roosevelt. The person in the arena. You. Even when rejection paralyzes you. How long the paralysis lasts depends on the writer. So, again, how do you pick yourself up and stare at that blinking cursor after rejection?
Like writing, there’s no right or wrong answer—what works for one writer, doesn’t work for another. But here are three actions to try:
- Allow yourself to feel bad (actually wallow in your pity) for a day…sometimes two days. It’s important to allow yourself to feel disappointment about a rejection. If you try to deny you’re disappointed, it takes longer to get past it.
- Look for the silver lining in the rejection. And there usually is one. Enter contests that give good feedback, then look at the judges’ comments and evaluate them. See if their points have validity. The same thing with a rejection from an editor or agent. If the reason is stated for not saying yes, look at what is said. See if their suggestions work for your story—only you know if it will.
- Recognize that not everyone will like what you write or how you write. If you understand that from the get-go, it will make rejection much easier. And always remember—the story is yours. You can write it however you want.
The important thing is to get back in front of the computer and start writing again. Be that person in the arena. Channel that pain into your heroine. Open that vein and bleed all over your paper.
Oh, and that writer who collected all those rejections? She kept writing, and eventually landed an agent who sent her six manuscripts out. One day the agent called and asked if she was sitting down. Her hope soared—maybe she’d sold a book. She asked the agent and the agent replied no, and her heart sank. Then he told her she hadn’t sold a book, she’d sold four! Read more about Christie Craig here.
So, if when you get a rejection, accept it, try to learn from it, and then get back to what you were created to do—go write!
It’s Elvis Week in Memphis, and homicide Detective Rachel Sloan isn’t sure her day could get any stranger when aging Elvis impersonator Vic Vegas asks to see her. But when he produces a photo of her murdered mother with four Elvis impersonators–one of whom had also been murdered soon after the photo was taken–she’s forced to reevaluate. Is there some connection between the two unsolved cases? And could the recent break-in at Vic’s home be tied to his obsession with finding his friend’s killer?
When yet another person in the photo is murdered, Rachel suddenly has her hands full investigating three cases. Lieutenant Boone Callahan offers his help, but their checkered romantic past threatens to get in the way. Can they solve the cases before the murderer makes Rachel victim number four?
Patricia Bradley lives in North Mississippi with her rescue kitty Suzy and loves to write suspense with a twist of romance. Her books include the Logan Point series and two Harlequin Heartwarming romances. Justice Delayed, a Memphis Cold Case Novel, is the first book in her next series and it releases January 31, 2017. When she has time, she likes to throw mud on a wheel and see what happens.