Re-Motivation

A short wallowing period, complete with tasty food and alcoholic beverages. Revenge queries and contests. Talking to my friends and family who understand the way this works and can give me a reality dose in the midst of my wailing and rending of garments.

I also like to walk down to the Books-A-Million near where I work and visit my 'spot' - the place on the shelf where my books would go. Personally it helps me refocus.

Research (if you haven't already) more publishers and re-sub. Perhaps do another read through and edit to fit their guidelines. There's a publisher out there that's a perfect fit for what you wrote - it just takes a while to find them.

Keep so many different projects in submission that no single rejection has much impact. Write constantly, finish everything you start, and submit everything you finish.

Hi
Have a short 'Woe is me Pity Party' then reasonably quickly move on to the next projectin what ever shape or form that takes. Be it: research or actual writing, etc!!

Kev

I've been struggling over this past year with trying to keep working on new projects while querying a finished one. The kind of constant level of rejection has been wearing on me. It's easier to handle the discrete moments of rejection with revenge queries and brief periods of wallowing in it. But in the long term, what really helps me is reading and re-reading books that inspire me. I recently read several of what were my favorite novels growing up, and I remembered why I wanted to be a writer in the first place.

That's my strategy for fiction and my academic work. It's grants season in my life right now and I'm getting a lot of rejection and dejection on that front, too. But then I re-read some of my favorite essays and books, and I remember why I love my work in the first place.

So, that's my strategy: finding ways to rediscover why I love this to begin with. Because, I think, in the long term, you have to love it more than you are crushed by rejection.

Maybe I'm a cold, unemotional android, but I just add it to the pile and keep working. I do print every rejection I receive though. When I get an acceptance, I'm allowed a celebratory bonfire.

I happen to believe the best way to beat the rejection blues is by selling something. This may sound obvious, but it's still the best way. If you great big project you're shopping around keeps getting rejection, sell something else, something smaller. Any acceptance goes a long way in beating the rejection blues, even if the check is for fifty bucks.

I think it's important to stick to one genre until you sell when writing novels, but another novel should always be in progress.

But so should short stories, articles, and anything else you can find any interest in writing. Acceptance matters, regardless of what gets accepted. A long string of nothing but rejections is going to make anyone suffer from rejection blues.

Jamesaritchie said:

I happen to believe the best way to beat the rejection blues is by selling something.

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I'm sure that would help, but that's based on no personal experience.

I'm also sure that the best way to beat hunger is to eat some food, and the best way to beat destitution is to obtain some money.

caw

You'll find your best rejection methods, but I definitely recommend finding what those are. This is psychology, through and through, but maybe only let yourself do something when you are rejected, it will help the immediate, guttural pain of it (hey, you got rejected, but at least now you can watch an episode of __________."). But before and after that, remember rejection is part of the game, if you aren't being rejected, you aren't playing. It is a success in itself (though sometimes, I feel too successful in this area )

I can stomp and spit and rant all I want as long as no one is around to witness it and I'm simultaneously packing rejected piece for instant resubmission. After that, I work on latest WIP.

After a couple hundred rejections, I've gotten habituated and don't much bother with the stomping, spitting and ranting parts anymore.

I somehow had an easier time while I was querying. Every now and then one would get me down, and I'd treat myself to something nice. I'd also revenge query--if I got a no, I might send out three new queries.

I'm having a harder time now that I'm not querying. I get zero validation anymore. I don't even have my usual alpha readers who used to beg me for the next chapter. I'm just me trying to write and convince myself that my lack of success isn't because I'm just terrible at this gig, and the insecurity has made it hard to keep working on the new projects. How do you get over that?

Beckstah said:

A short wallowing period, complete with tasty food and alcoholic beverages. Revenge queries and contests. Talking to my friends and family who understand the way this works and can give me a reality dose in the midst of my wailing and rending of garments.

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^^^ This. Its a good thing. I figure about a day of feeling bad about myself is all I can handle before I start hurting my own work. Then I repeat to myself all of the rejected and now successful author stories I know.

Afterwards, I think about what I want from my writing. Is this simply because I want published, or is it because writing is something that is a part of me? Inevitably, I realize whether or not I ever get published, I want to write. Wanting to write for the sake of writing pushes me to want to get published. Everyone wants to make money doing something they love.

Shrug it off, get back to work- that's the only thing I know how to do. The work is a reward unto itself. If its not, why write?

kaitie said:

I get zero validation anymore. I don't even have my usual alpha readers who used to beg me for the next chapter. I'm just me trying to write and convince myself that my lack of success isn't because I'm just terrible at this gig, and the insecurity has made it hard to keep working on the new projects. How do you get over that?

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I don't recall inviting you to my planet.

caw

blacbird said:

I don't recall inviting you to my planet.

caw

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Nor mine.

There's one thing that keeps me going. I remember how frustrated I was with this philosophy class I took in college. Everyone was so opinionated and I was totally judgmental about their perspectives. I didn't realize it at the time, but I while I was judging everyone else--my professor included--I was holding back from saying my views. By the time the final came around, I was so bent out of shape, I finally just wrote exactly how I felt. I can't even remember the topic, but I do remember totally going for it, writing exactly what I felt. My prof told me that it was the best paper I'd written all semester.

So here I am years later. Yet I feel like I've been holding back in my writing. The one thing that inspires me is to give writing yet another chance, but this time to totally go for it and take some risks. After all, as long as I'm already getting rejected by countless editors, I might as well get rejected with something that's my fullest expression.

Procrastinista -- I hope that works for you. I've found getting rejected for the work I love the best makes it even harder to keep from driving off a bridge (or pushing someone off one). And this week, that's my best-case scenario. (The rejection, not the bridge. )

I'm in the same boat with kaitie & blacbird. I already tried stepping back for a while & that only made things worse. Maybe I should take up drinking again . . .

/whine