For those of us who write, rejection is constant. It takes some getting used to. Some folks give up before they get really get started because of the rejection. When you put so much of yourself into something a rejection of the thing feels like a rejection of you. In that case, the first rejection letter confirms the terrible voice always whispering, you’re not cut out for this. So they...
I got my first rejection on the manuscript for my rural crime novel, BURY ME BENEATH THE TWISTED TREE, last week. It hit a little harder than the rejections from short works. I’m used to those. Today, the rejection finally felt distant enough I could turn it into blackout poetry. There are still three publishers in this batch of submissions, so I’m expecting three more rejections...
I saw somebody create a blackout poem from a job rejection on LinkedIn. My first exposure to the idea of blackout poetry came from Austin Kleon. Why not do the same with writing rejections? I submitted a story while teaching a class as a demonstration of how the process worked. A week after the class ended, I got a rejection. I made this from the response. Learning to handle rejection is the most...