Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Rejection Revisited

I've spoken about rejection and how to handle it before, but it's something well worth going over again as it's all too easy to forget that sometimes rejection does hurt.

It's important to build up a thick skin against rejection, but even if you do there will always be that one rejection too many that gets to you. We're all human and we all desire to be loved and liked; writers even more so I think. The important thing as a writer is not to let others see you're hurting and not to rant publicly about it. That is a big mistake, a big fat no no in media circles, and a sure fire way to get yourself a bad name. It's worth remembering that if someone Google's your name they might come across your moan and think you're hard to work with and avoid you. No one likes a moaner, not even other moaners.

Go and Google your own name right now and see what comes up. If any moaning, or anything negative comes up then remove the offending article, blog or Tweet. I did this the other week and found two very early, very negative blog posts which I later removed. Here's a few other important things you might want to consider.

Rejection isn't personal. No one ever died from rejection. Rejection doesn't mean your work is rubbish, it just means they didn't like it/or it wasn't right for them at the time. Someone else might like it and snap your hand off.

Remember, be positive at all times online and keep any negative thoughts behind closed doors. Your career will thank you for it.

2 comments:

Francis d. said...

Never a truer word... anyone remember a band called the Beatles... apparently industry A&R thought they were pants... and fairly sure JK Rowling got her fair share of rejection slips... and now she's worth... oh, cripes, not even worth thinking about it really!!!
KTF
Fd
www.buttlefly.net

Dominic Carver said...

Thing is everyone, no matter who it is, has to deal with rejection, but it's the mark of a person how you deal with it and carry on.