A friend was in town last week very briefly, and she and I met to catch up. One of the topics discussed was this year’s conventions, and which of the crop we might attend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I mentioned that I’d been entertaining the notion of being on a panel. It might be fun; it might give me something new to plan and focus on; it might be a good way to meet people and expand my circle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Question was: what was I qualified to talk about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don’t have a book to sell, I don’t have a popular platform, I’m still very obviously in the early years of my writing career. Why would anyone take me seriously? I<\/em> wouldn’t. But I kept thinking about it, and eventually I realized I am<\/em> an expert in one area:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rejection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One thing I hear from other writers (especially when I mention the rejection challenge) is how hard they find receiving even a single rejection, let alone several a day\/week\/month. And I used to be like that too, but now… now I’m not. I got seven rejections over a week <\/strong><\/em>while on vacation<\/strong>, and yeah, it sucked, but on Monday I was back in my chair, doin’ the work and sending out subs as usual (more on that below). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Detachment, perspective, rewording the problem to better find a solution… those are skills I taught <\/em>myself. Maybe I can teach other people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s just off the top of my head! And there doesn’t need to be an exhaustive list–I’m not proposing a TEDX Talk. There would be other people on the panel with relevant experience. (Maybe an editor, to talk about the other side of the table.) But it’s a start, and I know that there are people who want to learn, who need<\/em> to learn, how to take a single rejection from a day-ending tragedy down to stubbed-toe levels of pain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Rejection tallies remain very private among writers; we all want to bitch at the bar, sure, but very few want to be the one to admit they’re racking up the rejections in triple digits after a year. All that secrecy just feeds social media’s image crafting problem; all that newbies see is the success stories, and when the next rejection lands in their inbox it feels personal, even when it isn’t. That needs to change. Maybe I can do my part to shift the conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So that’s something to think about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can’t get rejections without submissions, and on Monday–after the seventh rejection in a week, and a particularly difficult one to accept–I went to the coworking space as usual. It hurt, gave me doubts, but I went on anyway, and in a burst of perhaps misplaced anger I sent out not the two queries that I needed for my week’s quota, but four<\/em> and hit 50 queries for Blackout Odyssey<\/em> a week early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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