Rejection Nightmares

Oh man! No, I gotta say not yet. Phew! That sounds terrifying!!!

I read great bit of advice from Jack Bickham about rejection. He said, "Writers begin with rejection, they live with rejection, and they die with rejection. Nobody sells everything."

Basically, he's saying that we should get over any fears, worries, or nightmares because the rejections are bound to come. I've had my share this year and continue to kick out more stories for consideration. You will too.

Pike

I had an acceptance dream. I could read the letter and everything. When I woke up and realized it was just a dream, that really sucked. Funny* addendum: the rejection email came that day.






*Yes, I have received a lot of rejection letters in my time. How'd you know?

Um, mara_jade3, do you have six WIPs?

mara_jade3 said:

Dang. I thought being scared of monsters under the bed, or things that go bump in the night were bad all those years ago! Now I'm getting nightmares about the Chicken House rejecting my novel! Only when it gets returned to me in the mail, the binder that held my novel is EMPTY! *gasp* And I read the longest rejection letter ever and omg the anxiety I felt! Let me tell you all that I was soooooo glad to wake up and tell myself, "It was only a dream." Has anyone else out there had rejection nightmares??

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Of course you're not alone in feeling this way. I had an agent ask for the ms, then ask for a re-write of the opening, and then they gave me a kind "no". As far as rejections go, that isn't nasty.

I didn't think I would feel that horrible, but I felt like I was dumped the day before prom night. And honestly, their rejection was a good thing, because it forced me to go back and take another look and make needed modifications.

All the same, I think at every point in this process I'd go from feeling confident to having rubber knees. This last time I got a 'yes', but even after that I was worrying about "Book two" not being good enough, or book three... There's no doubt I need to learn to relax and enjoy the moment.

I didn't need to read that!
I just sent off a revised manuscript to an agent this morning. But she's going to love it. I know she will. I hope she will. Maybe she will?

windyrdg said:

I didn't need to read that!
I just sent off a revised manuscript to an agent this morning. But she's going to love it. I know she will. I hope she will. Maybe she will?

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She will.

The power of positive thinking...

Like DeadlyAccurate, I've had acceptance dreams. I'm so excited, and then it turns out it's only a dream...

seaaircarol said:

Like DeadlyAccurate, I've had acceptance dreams. I'm so excited, and then it turns out it's only a dream...

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Count me in the Cruel Dreams club!

DeadlyAccurate said:

I had an acceptance dream. I could read the letter and everything. When I woke up and realized it was just a dream, that really sucked.

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Count me in for this one, too. It's definitely a downer way to start off the day.

mara_jade3 said:

lol Yes, I do. I have a problem with getting a lot of ideas, then I'll write a bit of it and then return to the main one I'm trying to focus on.

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Mara, I'm the same way. I used to actually start the book, but now what I'll do is just keep these massive outlines of information for if and when I actually start to write the book. Haha, last night I actually did that... I got some ideas and was up until 3:00 AM just writing about the plot, characters, etc.

My subconscious is terribly tedious. I always have the "stringing along" dreams. Endless all-nighters of non-offers and negative feedback without rejection or offer, or rewrites without specific understanding of the situation between me and the agent (which, oddly, I'm living right now in my waking life- damn, I'd better dream up an offer of rep. STAT!).

There's a lot of waiting in my dreams. You'd think my conscious mind would have that base covered...

This stuff gets into dreams? omg. (I'm about to begin serious querying.) Bad enough it's everywhere else, oy. Maybe I'll just be a janitor or something. Or not sleep.

I dreamed last night of eating brains. Human brains. No joke.

It was very bad. Woke me up.

Does that count?

caw

Robert, you have a serious case of protein deficiency going on there.

Tri