I finally got the gumption to submit my writing a few years back. After 3 Rs I stopped writing for 14 months. Even though I can drink coffee as black as my heart over at SYW, clearly I still need to figure out how to develop a thick kin...
Its a good performance indicator, I found - rejections mean that you're actually put yourself out there, and getting a greater his rate of acceptances means that you've either become a) better at writing or b) Learned to chose your markets correctly...
Rejection helped me realise just how subjective the industry is.
So I've written another that is more in line with the tropes/conventions - but still takes a wild turn in the middle that will probably be its death knell. If it doesn't go anywhere, I have to accept that I either don't have an affinity for marketable fiction or I don't have an affinity for writing genre fiction. And my stuff tends to be far too plot oriented for LF.
It sounds weird, but I'm all in favor of rejection. It stings like hell, but it can have great results if it causes us to go back, time and time again, to a ms. that is almost but not quite where it needs to be.