I talked about it in detail on my not-a-writer’s-blog blog, Silence Killed the Dinosaurs, instead of here, my writer’s blog, because that seemed logical.
But now I’m thinking it does leave a massive gap on this blog if I just … never mention such a big happening to do with writing. So let’s do it, just not in a redundant way. If you want my personal demons regarding expectations, rejection and why I framed ‘getting a rejection letter’ as my goal going into writing a novel, go over to the other blog. It also has comics.
Where does this rejection leave me from a writer’s perspective?
Overall it has been a positive thing. For a start, it was nice to hear back from someone at all. I’ve put a few submissions out and that’s the only one I’ve heard back from. It took six months. I was beginning to wonder if any of them had even gone through. This rejection gives me hope I might still hear back from others I’d mentally written off.
It was a polite rejection, too, phrased along the lines of ‘we read with interest, but no thanks’. It might be the stock reply, but I’m choosing to believe it is at least the stock reply a level or two up from however they phrase ‘this was not even slightly a professional submission yikes’.
Honestly, I feel way more like a Proper Writer since received a Certified Rejection Letter. Everyone gets rejected in writing. Usually a lot more than once, too. This feels like an important milestone, and it’s actually motivated me to keep on keeping on with it all.
I’m not being totally Polyanna about it though. Obviously, the preferred outcome is to be accepted for publishing, and this was not that. Also the email happened to arrived in a week that was a pile on of hard things and disappointments, including the funeral of a friend who passed very unexpectedly. That timing made it hit harder in the moment, but as I had plenty going on to distract me, I moved onto the next emotion without getting bogged down in overthinking.
Something I didn’t really think to expect is that talking about it with non-writer friends has been an odd experience. Not bad. Just … odd. Just because I knew to anticipate rejection, and lots of it, but some of them seemed to fully expect me to immediately land a publishing deal. Which is of course lovely of them. These are good supportive friends (quite a few were beta readers, and are invested). It’s just a me issue. I have some hang ups about expectations and disappointing people (see the other blog for more on that), so those moments of straddling different understandings of what this rejection means feel … odd.
(No, I’m not going to expand on ‘… odd’ and have an epiphany about anything. That’s what my psychologist appointments are for. This is my blog. It is a safe space for me to ignore obvious cognitive dissonance and resist personal development. Please respect that.)
I would still like to have a celebratory beverage with my local Writer’s Group. Unfortunately, the last meeting never happened due to various personal dramas (on my end, a 11:30pm to 2am intensive gastro sesh with my 3yo the night before that resulted 2 baths for the child, a parental shower each, 2 loads of washing, one totally written off rug, and several anxious days wondering if either me or my husband was incubating it and about to blow). Hopefully that can happen at the next meeting instead.
‘That’ being the celebratory beverage, not an intensive gastro sesh.
As for the future, there are still publishers on my list to hear back from and submit to, so we’ll see. It’s nice to know I can handle it, however it goes.
LJ Grove-Jones Writes* 