Has your writing ever been rejected?

I recently submitted a poem to a website called The WEIGHT Journal. They publish youth writers poems, essays, short stories, and more on their blog. But they’re different—they address heavy topics that are more frequently avoided when it comes to being published on blogs for youth.

I got an email from them a couple days after I submitted it…and it said something along the lines of “Thanks for your submission! It’s not the best fit for us…but please keep us in mind for future submissions!”

At first I was like, “BRUH. What? My writing was so good, it totally should have gotten accepted!” Then I thought about it and shrugged. “Whatever. Their loss.” And then I thought about it again, harder this time. “Actually…I GOT REJECTED!! YES!!”

After I thought about it harder, I realized: this was my first rejection as a writer. I suddenly became so excited because I experienced something that every other author will go through, and it was just one step of my writing journey.

Every author goes through rejection: Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women was rejected but then became a classic. Rudyard Kipling had been told that he didn’t understand the English language enough but then went on to become a famous author.

So how do we deal with rejection when it comes to our writing?

Well, step one, whether or not you get rejected, give yourself a round of applause! Why? You submitted something! That’s the first step and it’s a big one. So good job!!

Step two: Acknowledge it. Don’t ignore it. You’ve been rejected. But that’s okay. Because like I said, (1.) all authors get their writing rejected at some point. And (2.) your writing is not you.

So take a breath. You are doing great. Someday, after two submissions, after ten submissions, maybe after fifty submissions, you’ll get there. It doesn’t matter if Suzy’s story about princesses got accepted, because you are different than Suzy and your story is different than Suzy’s. Everybody has their own journey!

And step three: Don’t give up! If that one rejection stops your whole writing journey, then you’ll never get anywhere. Don’t take that one submission and let it ruin your life—push past it. After all, that’s one person’s rejection. Imagine how many other people there are who would love your story!

I hope this helped, keep going! You’ve got this, man!
~Willow