Rejection is not about you. Part of it it’s about that piece, that story, that poem, that book. But it’s also about them and what they can and can’t see, and about what they can and can’t market, who they can and can’t target.
yvonne battle-felton
Perhaps some writers believe that one reaches a certain point in their career when they are established enough and stop receiving rejections – only acceptances, commissions, money and praise come their way! While this may be the dream of many of us, truth is, won’t ever happen. Your writing won’t be loved by absolutely every human being on this Earth.
What is more, and as Yvonne Battle-Felton suggests in this episode, we need to stop taking rejections personally. Getting a short story rejected doesn’t mean being kicked out of the writing community. Doesn’t even mean we are not good writers! Writers get rejected constantly, it’s simply part of the journey.
If you get a rejection letter, see it as a confirmation that you are doing the work you should. And if it is a rejection from a place you love – do like Yvonne – and celebrate!
I’ll always remember the first time I submitted something to The New Yorker and it was rejected and I was like, yeah, I got a rejection from The New Yorker, that’s pretty cool, and I was talking to a really good friend of mine, who is not a writer, and she was like, oh my gosh, what are you gonna do? Are you gonna stop writing? And I’m like, what are you talking about? They don’t send rejections to everybody… this is great!
yvonne battle-felton
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The Wandering Bard podcast is also available on Spotify. You can also find us on Twitter at @TheWBmag.
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