A rejection came in my e-mail box this morning just after the other one that arrived last night. Now they just roll off me like water off a duck’s back. Rejections that is…Or rather, refusals–someone’s decision not to use your idea, your story, hire you, _________ (You fill in the blank). No one likes them. We all get them. And as writers, we actively put ourselves out there to get them!
Someone in sales once told me: “Look to get 100 no’s first.” I’m still counting as I’ve run out of fingers and toes. It’s not yet one hundred (Do I really have to wait?), but I must say, these refusals have been sporadically interspersed with “Yes’s”. So where does that leave me? Where does that leave us as emerging and even accomplished writers looking to put our voice out there?
It strikes me that while I wait for that “Yes,” I should be writing more, not less. I should be working on my next great piece of writing that will get me a yes. For that just might be the creative piece that does it–and if I had sat there wallowing in my self-pity from the no’s I’d gotten, then I would never write again. Writing is funny that way. For some reason, the creativity flows, despite the no’s.
How do you handle your no’s? Have you reached 100 yet? Does it make the “Yes” sweeter?