Thursday, February 23, 2006

How to coup with writing rejections

Have your writing been rejected today? If the answer is yes, then of course you are deeply frustrated and feel discouraged. Rejecting in general is perhaps the toughest thing in the world to get along with. I do not know any good way to console you expect the fact that I am just like you in this matter. May be, I have suffered more rejections than you or may be not but I have suffered quite a bit. However, that does not mean that you and I are not skilled writers or we should give up writing altogether. Instead of being sad lest us try to get over it and be successful.

Failure is the pillar of success
When we were in school, we used to memorize this sentence. That time, I did not understand its real significance as like many children my dreams were very limited and most of the time I used to get the things before wanting. However, as I grow up more and more, I could touch that the world is a very tough and competitive place. Each day means competing with others for everything- from buying fresh vegetables at a reasonable place to finding a good spouse or job. Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. However, in my own life I have seen that I can get very few things in the first attempt. On many things, first I need some practice and knowledge and then try again. If this is the case in many things in life why not in writing too!

Try, try Again
There is an obvious difference between writing and other professions. Those of us who want to be a writer actually dream for it. Hardly any of us with dream of becoming the next Bill Gates join writing. If you want to be the next Bill Gates and your writing has been rejected then accept it as a blessing and leave writing and join business. But for those of us writing is a dream, we should stick to our effort and simply continue trying on. Constant trying has one good advantage- it gives us another more opportunities to be successful.

It has happened to them too
When we get a rejection letter or email then we feel jealous for the successful and established writers. Media and publishers are crazy for getting writings from them and the same media and publishing companies are just only sending rejection letters. However, a little search in Internet will reveal to you that many of them have suffered rejections more than you and I. It is so good if you try to read about the rejections that famous writers faced in their own life.

A natural part of life
Rejection is really a sad but natural part of life. Try to think of how you deal with rejections in other areas of your life and then apply some of the principles when your writing gets rejected.

Keep a record of the rejections
Keep a record of the all the rejection emails and letters so that after you overcome your frustrations, you can analyze them and try to figure out what went wrong. If you can realize what went wrong then you can surely be better prepared next time.

Why rejections?
Please remember that every time your writing gets rejected does not mean that you are not a good writer or your writing is not up to the mark. There are a number of other factors too. For example, a magazine will publish only one article written by freelance writers and against it 70-80 submissions have come to them. On this kind of conditions, a magazine or a website tries to accept the submission of the writer who has good track record in the desired field instead of a new writer or a writer from another track. Sometimes, our writings get rejected because we did not follow the editorial guidelines very well. That is why it is important to try to realize the main reason behind suffering a particular rejection.
When we suffer writing rejections we have two choices. We can either get frustrated or we can try to realize the reason behind writing rejections and then try to improve our writings next time. The choice is really only yours.

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