A Life Dedicated to Writing (and Rejection is Part of It)

I’ve been blessed to do some cool things in my storied career in writing. I’ve been published in literary magazines, both in print and online. I’ve been interviewed for my writing, asked questions on my process, my goals, upcoming publications. I’ve even premiered a film I wrote at The Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

Now, does that mean my career has sashayed along without rejection? Absolutely, emphatically, glaringly, no. I deal with rejection nearly every single day.

For instance, I’ve published several poems from a collection I began writing in 2021. I went out on submission with the collection and received several rejections. A multitude. Honestly, I lost count. So then, I took the next logical step. I trimmed some poems that had been rejected many times from lit magazines and created a chapbook. A chapbook wherein a little over a third of the poems had already been accepted for publication and even nominated for The Pushcart Prize, (one of them “The Last Night” you can read here at this link: The Last Night).

Now I was armed with a greatest hits album of sorts, a poetry chapbook mostly made up of poems that have been well-received, along with the remaining strongest contenders. The fastest gazelles in the herd, if you will accept the mixed metaphors.

Does that mean the chapbook strolled out into the literary marketplace, taking concerted steps on a velvety red carpet? Absolutely, emphatically, glaringly not.

I’ve been facing waves of rejections. Some of them have been personalized and kind, which is hopeful! If you receive a personalized rejection, take it as a major compliment and continue marching. But many of the rejections are form rejections. The same rote response the press offers the other hundreds and thousands of writers trying to do the same thing as me.

But, does that mean the chapbook is bad? No. Does it mean my writing isn’t good enough? No.

It just means I’m a writer. To be a writer means to contend with near-constant rejection. Every day, someone will tell you no. They will tell you this isn’t right for us, you need to revise, you should think about getting that MBA after all. There are so many ways to say no and only way to receive a yes.

That’s the life of a writer, though. We walk alongside our writing. We welcome the words. We even embrace our work when it gets rejected over and over and over again. Just because you get rejected doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer. It doesn’t mean you won’t get to do cool stuff. All the cool stuff I did, I got to do it while my inbox was getting lit up by rejections.

Friends – all you have to do is keep writing. The only failure is if you stop writing.