On Reaching Goals, Rejection Letters, and Channeling Dori

I’ve hit a lot of major milestones in the last few weeks:

  1. I finally wrote the last line of my novel.
  2. I submitted my novella to three publishing houses.
  3. I took the plunge and signed up for pitching appointments at RWA Nationals in July.

This should be a cause for celebration. But I’ve found that, at least in writing, reaching your goals is a deceptive kind of thing, because there are always new goals to follow. Completing the first whole draft of my novel (which had been almost entirely written in September of last year, and then needed to be rewritten from a completely different point of view) only means that I immediately get to start all over again on the revisions I’ve been meaning to do for months. Submitting my novella meant waiting for the response letters, and, subsequently, I got my first rejection letter this week.

Needless to say, I was pretty dejected. Sometimes it’s hard to keep going when it feels like all you have ahead of your newly completed goals are an endless list of more of them, and, possibly, more rejection in your path. But with some cheerleading from my amazing critique partners, family and friends, I’ve picked my head up, reopened my revision document, and moved on. And any time I haven’t felt up to the challenge, I’ve channeled Dori from Finding Nemo:

You’ve got to just keep swimming.

Happy summer everyone.

Comments

  1. Girl, I have enough rejection letters to wallpaper my bathroom. Twice. Don’t let it get you down!

  2. TheRugbymom says:

    We often don’t appreciate the things that come easily.

    You’re doing something that many of us could never do. (We may have other talents, but lack the imagination and skill set to be writers.)

    Don’t ever think of your efforts as a time suck. As long as you love it, keep doing it! Enjoy the journey!

Speak Your Mind

*