Is the fear of rejection holding you back?
Posted By annette young on April 2, 2011
Is the fear of rejection stopping you from progressing with your writing and taking that crucial step from amateur to professional?
Having doubts about your own creative skill set is natural; it is what makes you strive to improve your writing technique and to be able to write to a level where you are satisfied with your work. But even when you reach that plateau of achievement, many writers fall short of taking that next step. Why?
I remember getting my first rejection letter and sobbing profusely for a while, blatantly taking the whole standard rejection thing as a personal attack. Once I had finally come to my senses, I realised that it wasn’t the end of my writing at all, far from it; it was the start because at least I had taken that first step to sending work out and now had a benchmark to follow.
Rejection is never a pleasure of course but it is an important part of writing. No one can possibly write without receiving a standard rejection slip and if everyone got published immediately, what would that say about the standard? If you can change your perception of a rejection letter, you can make it work for you and not against you, try viewing the letter as a challenge instead and determine that you will get your work published with that publication specifically and sharpen your focus. Dig deep into your stubborn reserves and rise to the challenge.
Your writing could be just what the publishers are looking for but if you never submit any work, how will they ever discover you? Change your negative response to a positive one and increase your chances of publication through grim determination.
Never let the fear of rejection prevent you from fulfilling your potential!
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