Coping mechanisms -- Do you have one?

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Pisarz

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Here's what I do:

1. Send whiny, "It happened AGAIN!" emails to my husband and writer friends.

2. Post some self-deprecating remarks on AW, usually here in my home away from home, R & D. Sometimes, if I haven't gotten the whine out of my system, I'll started a boo-hoo thread here. (Joking aside, I am eternally grateful to the support around here, and if I get published, AW is getting a shout-out in my acknowledgements).

3. Re-read and often tweak/revise the MS, depending on whether or not I got feedback. If I've gotten several forms in a row, I revisit it anyway and look for potential problems.

4. Send out more queries.

5. Get more rejections, send out whiny, "It happened AGAIN!" emails . . .

I need to break the cycle, man! Somebody throw me a liferaft made of chocolate or something! ;)
 

Harvest

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I make myself send something out (enter a short story contest, send out another query, etc.). I give myself a two day deadline (and allow it to be stretched to the end of the week if need be but don't allow it to go longer than that).
 

Doctor Shifty

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Funny how chocolate comes up in this thread. I've just come to the computer from the evening news and guess what !!! - researchers have definitive proof that chocolate eases depression. It's on the national news this very night here in Australia.

However, I am also sitting here with a glass of Hoppers Hill 1991 Sauvignon Blanc. This is made by a winemaker friend of mine who manages to make wine of such extraordinary quality that even his whites are still thriving after 16 years in the bottle. It's a rich gold colour and has such smoothness and depth of flavour that if I could write like this guy makes wine I would never have to worry about another rejection letter in my life.

Anyway, today I got another rejection letter. Opening the wine had nothing to do with coping mechanisms or anything. Really.
 

ajkjd01

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Here's mine....

1. Log it.
2. File it.
3. Veg for the evening...either in videogames or becoming a zombie in front of the TV. I give myself permission to not accomplish anything for one evening, with the caveat that I must write the following day during my lunch hour and after work to make up for it.

The day that I received three rejections at once sucked at my soul. Serious therapy was in order, in the form of double fudge chocolate brownies, a nice glass of Reisling, and a long hot bubble bath reading a trashy romance that made me feel better about my writing until my cat cried for me outside the door, making me feel loved again.

One rejection letter is a bummer, but I can handle it. Three at once....well....I'd prefer jabbing a freshly sharpened chopstick into my eye. Especially when one had misspellings in it.

Yeah, yeah. I know. They're not rejecting me. I certainly wasn't impressed with the misspellings. Still, multiple rejections are like cruel and unusual punishment, aren't they? Especially all at once?

For that matter....next time I send queries, I'm making my roommate go through the mail first. That way I only get one at a time.
 
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Zelenka

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I have a big wicker basket in my hall and with my last novel, the rejection letters got shoved unceremoniously down the back of it, then I would eat lots of things that weren't good for me. The first few really stung, then in the middle I got pretty used to it and almost resigned to the fact that I sucked and rejections were therefore inevitable, then for the last few I went back to being mad and eating rubbish again.

What I have found though is that the 'what is the point, I can't write, I'll never be published' feeling goes away as soon as one of my characters demands attention.
 

nerds

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I give my dartboard a good workout till it begs for mercy, and then take a long speedy bike ride rain or shine. That's about it for my coping strategies.
 

nighttimer

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I used to hang on to my rejections thinking how good of a laugh I'd have reading them after my book was published.

Now I just toss them in File #13. Why torture myself? These agents have moved on so why not do the same?

:Shrug:
 

WriterGirl2007

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I throw mine away immediately and think how glad I am that the rejection happened rather than something that could've been far worse. Hmm... I had a former boss call me into his/her office and pretty much hammer me for something I wrote, so a little form rejection is actually a nice change for me. ;)

(Don't get me wrong, I'm a great writer. This boss just had ... problems... LOL.)
 
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