How to keep positive and productive?

michellez

Hi all,

This week I’ve had two short story rejections, and my entry for the WM crime competition has just been returned. I’m struggling to keep myself positive. I’d usually switch off from writing for a day, and open a nice bottle of wine, but as I’m having a detox I can’t drown my sorrows this time!

Can anyone share any positives, and remind me that I need dogged perseverance, and that if I’m ever going to get anywhere I can’t let rejections get me down.

It’s one of those times I feel like I’m never going to make it!

Red

Hi Michellez.

Probably everyone will tell you it's part and parcel of writing. We all have to contend with rejections, none of us are immune. Many TBer's have experienced them.

What I will say, and this is important to would be writers especially, is that as writers we NEED rejections, because they make you a better writer. Receiving a rejection means the work is not quite right just yet. Most magazines will say where it needs tweaks and edits, which is helpful. They can point to weak areas. Go back and reassess your stories, be critical with yourself and imagine you are an editor and you'll know where you need to change things to make your story BETTER.

Rejections hurt and sometimes they can make you doubt yourself, but it simply means you have to work a little harder to make it right. Embrace rejections; think of them as the learning curve to enable you to grow and flourish as a writer.

Keep writing, keep submitting and you will be accepted eventually because rejections MAKE you improve your writing and enable you to become a better writer.

dorothyd

Michellez. check out my Progress Report thread and sign up for me to keep on at you to write and write and submit and write some more.
See Casey's thread on I love writing but ... (current thread) and then do a search for my major thread on handling rejection. All will give you a boost. As will coming on here and saying, give us a boost!

Positives, I sold not only a book but an entire series after some 50 rejections. Will that do for starters????

michellez

Ah thanks both, that certainly does help.

I think I've struggled more this time because all three rejections were just the manuscripts returned, with no comments or feedback. I'm better at the rejections where you are given at least some feedback, because as you say Red, you can then use this to improve your writing. But being positive, I will set them aside for a day or so, and then look at them as an editor. I'm sure I'll see loads to improve on.

Thanks again both!! That's helped!!

dorothyd

I would suggest more like a week or even longer. The further you are from them, timewise, the greater the clarity of vision. My partner is currently revising a book which took him ten years to write in all, it has been published, but he is now extremely dissatisfied with it, could be better written, could be tighter, I am getting all these comments, because - it is about two years since he last looked at it. Give yourself a space and work on something else in the meantime, so your mind is not pre occupied with the rejected work.

You Can Do It!

michellez

Thanks again!! Have also looked at your progress report thread, looks great! Can't subscribe to it for some reason (think my computer isn't as good as it should be!) but have bookmarked it to keep an eye until my technical challenges are sorted!

Thanks again for sharing your experiences, very, very helpful!

Carol

The rejections that don't give you any clue as to what was wrong are the real disheartening ones.

boredrobots

Probably really bad advice since part of the misery stems from writing but I've been in a pretty bad way the past couple of weeks, and writing was a great tonic for my depression.

http://stevenchapmanwriter.blogspot.com/2010/09/laughter-writing-is-best-medicine.html

It's all about perspective I suppose. Part of the misery was down to rejections for short story submissions so close after receiving an acceptance. It made it seem as if the acceptance was a fluke, worst of all it was my own fault for feeling this way. I think part of me thought it would be easier to get a second story published once I’d had my first one accepted. I know, I know, that’s a ridiculous thing to think, but after a long and crappy couple of years I was so elated by the acceptance that I let it take over a little too much.

The other parts of my misery were about my house (desperately need to sell) and my job (crap beyond belief), but the more I wrote (see blog) the less I thought about the crappy things in my life. I don’t think there will ever be a time in my life when EVERYTHING is perfect, so I just have to focus on the good things.

Instead of cracking open that bottle of wine and taking a day OFF from writing, why not crack it open and crack ON with writing? (Damn the detox!) If anything it will be a laugh to re-read the result in the morning when you’re sipping your fizzy-good-make-better Resolve filled water :D

casey

Stories are rejected for all sorts of reasons. They may have just accepted something similar, the stlye may not quite suit, or perhaps they've had a lot of similar subjects. Rejections are not a reflection of your writing. I look at them as a marketing blip and try again somewhere else. Don't take them personally.
I've have three rejections and one acceptance in the same post. The acceptance wiped out all the rejections. Send your stories out again and send your competition entry to another competition. Not winning a competition is more about the other entries than about your writing. Good luck and KEEP POSITIVE.

Dwight

I agree with Casey, Michelle, and with everyone: being positive is what's needed.

It's possible that your stories may be missing an ingredient. I've been guilty of this myself: completing and sending a story, but there was something missing which made it less than gripping. Far be it from me to suggest I've got the answer, but I'm turning to short stories at the moment, with the help of "Writing Great Short Stories" by Margaret Lucke. She writes novels and short stories and is a creative writing tutor at the University of California.

I've reduced her book into notes and further reduced it into what I call a 'blueprint for short stories' - a 30-step pathway to make sure you address all the key issues. If you would like me to send it to you, you can whisper me your email address. I'm finding it very helpful to lay out my stories, and it seems to be giving me a feel of confidence.

Piper

Hi Michelle, and welcome to TB.

Rejection is hard, as I found out yesterday night with my first ever rejection. You've just got to deal with it. It's hard I know, but it's part of the job description. My rejection came from an anthology, and the story wasn't what they were looking for. Fair dos. But I won't give up. I'm trying to write my way into as many anthologies as I can, including the one I was rejected in.

You just have to keep at it. Being with writer friends on here will help a lot.

Good luck with any future submissions.

Huskygirl

Hi Michellez,

I had my first 2 rejections recently, but it actually made me feel like I am a real writer! Am I weird?

Good luck for the future. Chin Up x

Viv

I recently went on a course run by Simon Whaley based on the premis that a productive writer is a positive writer! Just keep writing every day and keep sending work out. So, you got a couple of rejections? Doesn't matter if there are still another five stories out there waiting for responses! His plan for dealing with rejection is to write up a card with all the positive successful things you have already achieved as a writer, and to read through it with pride to remind yourself that it's just the story that's been rejected, not you. You know you can do it, because of all these great things you have already achieved. Include all that you have done on that card, from a great essay you wrote at school to being shortlisted in a poetry competition to having written 1000 words a day for the last week! Big yourself up and you will feel positive.

Jan

Agree with all the expressed opinions.
That's the negatives plus the positives.

This writing malady may be considered the worst of sicknesses but we all recognise the euphoria it invokes when successful.
It is a matter of perspective.

There are many potential explanations justifying an apparent "failure" but rejection should not be considered a lack of ability. No matter quality of one's work, time and place have to coincide with need for a particular creation to be appropriate.
Suggestions, encouraging continuity of writing, are most productive.
Pick markets, conjure the phrases and write relevant to target. The more you feed your desire the greater is capacity fulfilled. Talkback's One Word Challenge typifies vagaries of any marketplace.
Each month, different judges illustrate separate approaches to select one interpretation of the set word. We all have opinion as to which entry holds most appeal but there is rarely a submission that is considered worthless.
Thankfully; human brains are individual mechanism's, each influenced by its own environment.

It may, sometimes, be difficult to appreciate that Editors are human, indiviuals.
Somewhere, at sometime, every well written creation will find the right outlet at the right time.
First; you have to write it.

michellez

Thanks all for your comments and support! I'm just enjoying a couple of days out and about, fresh Autumn air, switching off from writing, the odd glass of wine! But am gearing myself up to cracking on again, and to revisiting all of those manuscripts with a fresh pair of eyes by the weekend. Have already written my list of targets and an action plan.

Thanks again for all of the good advice, you just need reminding sometimes don't you!

Carol

Agree with you michellez.
Having a few days away from writing can be very good for the rest of your writing.

pbw

I get down to the swimming pool when I feel really knackered with it all. It really helps - away from the screen and into lovely warm water and the sauna...great! I get back to the screen refreshed.

michellez

Swimming is a great idea! And so refreshing. I haven't been in ages but should try and get down to the pool again.