• The 100 Rejection Myth

    August 11, 2021 / 3 Comments

    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.

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  • I’m a Reject – and That’s Cool

    July 11, 2019 / 6 Comments

    You know what’s tougher than Jason Statham, bigger than Kanye West’s ego and stronger than the smell of Axe Body Spray? A writer’s ability to handle rejection. Or at least it should be.

    I knew, even before I started submitting, that rejections were going to be the norm. I lurk around on writer twitter, I read the blogs. I know the score. There’s a ton of writers out there and they all want to be published and there’s only so many spots to go around. It’s as simple as that.

    Now admittedly I’m somewhat new at submitting and with a little over 30 submissions so far (as of this writing) I’ve had a handful of acceptances but over 3 times as many rejections and I expect to receive many more. But I’m proud of every rejection I receive because it means that after years of not trying, I tried. And the truth is, I’ve gotten some mighty nice rejections, even the form ones. A couple said I was close, most asked me to submit again in the future, some even said they hoped my story finds a home. That kind of form rejection takes the sting out of it.

    Now I know editors are professional and these would never happen, but sometimes my imagination tends to run a bit wild. So by comparison, here are the rejections I EXPECTED to receive.

    • Dear Author, we have teamed up with words to file a class action lawsuit against you and have also obtained a restraining order.
    • Dear Author, we attempted to download your story from the cloud and it started raining.
    • Dear Resident, with regards to your creative writing skills, have you considered cost-managerial accounting as a viable career choice?
    • MY GOD WOMAN, WHO HURT YOU?

    My imagination, as you can probably tell, relies heavily on derisive humor and snark. It’s a design flaw.

    Now I remember reading a blog post or two that said you should aim for 100 rejections. I don’t believe in that. First of all, I don’t think submitting should be a numbers game, throwing stuff everywhere to see if it sticks. Secondly, I’m proud of my rejections but I don’t think you should celebrate them. They don’t deserve a party. They should sit at home miserable and alone like the rest of us – I mean, other people. Of course, other people.

    Sidenote: I tried to find interesting stock photos of someone alone and sad and all Google image search came up with was silhouetted people against setting suns. How can you be miserable when you’re at the beach and there’s a gorgeous sunset?

    Anyways..here’s to us rejects. We tried. And we’ll try again. Because writers are pretty damn tough – at least when we’re safely tucked away behind our keyboards.

    And while you’re here, do you have a rant, vent, rejection story, or a bunch of profanities you’d like to share? Tell me below.

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