Today I’d like to talk about rejection. I don’t want to turn my blog into a thing on writing every week because I don’t think I’m qualified to start dispensing wisdom on the topic. However, I do have a fair amount of experience with rejection, and so I think I can shed a little light on dealing with it. And this doesn’t apply strictly to writing; everyone faces rejection in life, and overcoming it is what makes us stronger.

Like many novice writers, I believed that you put in your time slogging through the gristmill of form rejections, keep pounding away at the keyboard until you’ve honed your skills enough to get that all important First Publication, or you finally manage to get an agent to give you a call and offer representation, and then the whole world opens up like a musical number from The Wizard of Oz. Bam! You’re the next Stephen King or J.K. Rowling.

Well, if you are laboring under that misconception, let me dispel it for you. Just because Editor X likes your Story Y, it does not mean that Story Z is going to find a home right away. And just because Agent A is willing to take a shot with your Novel B, it does not mean she is obligated to take on Novel C. Rejection is still a part of the game. If you can’t handle that, find another career. Harsh, but true.

Now for the inspirational part of this thing. Writing as a career is hard and rejection is an ongoing part of it. Once you know that, accept it, and come to terms with it, you are already ahead of the game. In his book, On Writing, Stephen King mentions a nail stuck in his wall above his desk when he started writing, and he would push his rejection letters onto it. When the letters wouldn’t fit anymore, he’d take them down, put them in a box and start putting the new ones on it, and so on and so on.
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
It reminds me of an old story about a farmer whose mule fell into a pit. Now, he loved the old mule and so couldn’t stand to think of the poor thing dying of thirst or starvation down there. So he decided to bury it alive. He spent all day hauling dirt and sand to the pit and dumping it on the poor old mule. The mule would shake it off and stomp on it. Every time. Shake it off and stomp on it. You see where this is going? Eventually, the pit filled up, but the mule was now free having shaken it off and stomped his way to the top.

But my greatest inspiration against rejection comes from Shakespeare’s Henry V. Everyone knows the famous St. Crispin’s Day speech right before the Battle of Agincourt, but for my money, the speech Harry gives his men outside the walls of Harfleur is where the real motivation is to be found. After all, the St. Crispin’s Day speech is before the epic battle, and the men, though tired and outnumbered, have yet to face the French army. The speech at Harfleur is in the midst of a bitter siege, after the English have been repulsed (rejected) several times already. Now, you tell me it’s harder to get pumped up to face a new challenge than it is to go back into the teeth of whatever has just knocked you on your ass. Repeatedly. I won’t believe you.
Henry V
So, shake it off and stomp on it, and get back into that breach.