The 100 Rejection Myth
Rejection sucks.
When I first started submitting short stories a couple of years ago, I knew they would happen (see my previous post on being a reject) but of course I don’t like them. However, they’re inevitable so to prepare myself I read blogs and insights from other writers and there was one bit of advice I saw time and time again.
Aim for 100 rejections. Not acceptances. Rejections.
WHY? If rejections suck, why are they your main goal? Shouldn’t you celebrate good things? What do you do when you reach that target? Print out the rejections and wear them like a shroud? Whine to friends, family and strangers that no one understands your art? Eat a pound of fudge and cry while watching the Mano: Hands of Fate episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 for the millionth time? I mean, I was going to do that last one anyways, but it’s always good when I have a reason.
Okay I should probably say that I haven’t even come close to 100 submissions yet overall and as a somewhat lazy person, it may take me a couple of years to get to the oft-touted 100 rejections, so perhaps that’s why I’m so cynical. Full disclosure, I’m actually more of a hobbyist than a serious writer. But I still don’t see the point.
Also full disclosure, I had to write hobbyist about 10 times because my fingers and Autocorrect conspired against me to write ‘hobbit’. I have no reason to add this but I just found it funny.
I want a second breakfast now.
So instead of aiming for 100 rejections, what should your writing goal be? Well, that’s up to the individual and as someone who can barely keep their houseplants alive, I’m not sure I should be giving advice to anyone about anything. However, I came up with some ideas anyways:
- Celebrate each acceptance (that one’s a given).
- Aim for submissions, not rejections. That means you’re trying at least.
- Eat a cookie of your choice every time you receive a personal note/feedback from the editor. Those babies are the golden tickets of the writing world and they’re awfully hard to come by.
- Eat a cookie anyways. They are happy-inducing.
And here’s what else you should probably start doing:
- Realizing you’re doing math and math sucks.
- Don’t focus on the negative. Work on your self-esteem, you jerk.
- Try not to compare yourself to others. Each writer will have their ups and downs and EVERYONE get rejections.
- Understand you are not a rejection letter. You are a writer. Even if a piece remains unpublished, you wrote that and no one can take it away from you.
Now I’m not going to criticize those who give or follow the 100 rejection advice, after all it’s subjective. All I’m asking is for you to try and stay positive in your writing journey and get your head out of the stats game once in awhile.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have fudge and MST3K waiting. No, I didn’t receive a rejection. It’s just Tuesday.
3 Comments
Ann Wycoff
Good advice and as you say, it is all subjective. I’ve probably collected a few thousand since the 1980s, though my first “rejection” was I wrote a piece of fan fiction that was one part D&D and one part Tolkien–as come to think of it D&D originally was back when it first came out in the 70s. My teacher proclaimed it “crap,” and called Tolkien a “hack writer,” and gave me a list of books I should read instead.
I can’t say that I found that teacher overly inspiring and that is the only thing I remember, all these years later, about his class or him.
What has worked for me with rejections is putting my heart into my writing, but when the piece goes out into the world I put on my businesswoman hat and look at from that angle rather than artistically. Then, if it is rejected I go back to the drawing board with my artistic hat again and repeat the process.
Speaking as an editor, one thing to remember is that editors want to publish stories. Sometimes your story doesn’t work and there can be many reasons for the rejection other than the editor’s personal taste or some other problem with your story. One reason might be that your story doesn’t work because the editor has already accepted another story that is too similar in some way. There are many other reasons.
Cheryl Z
Oh for sure. That’s why I don’t take rejections too personally – because I know the odds are a story will be rejected. I have to say though, I’ve received quite a few actually quite lovely rejections for the reasons you mentioned (too similar, not quite a good fit, didn’t have room). An editor’s job is TOUGH. 😉
Pingback: