Rejection Dejection, by Michelle Goode

I got a rejection yesterday morning. Queue what I call “rejection dejection”. For five panic-stricken minutes I was washed asunder by slippery depression-fuelled self-interrogation:

“Why am I doing this? I'm not good enough! I've wasted all this time. I may as well try for another career! Why wasn't I accepted? What's wrong with my short story? I thought it was good... Maybe it wasn't. Maybe nothing I write is...”

… And so forth. We've all been there. It's that pesky self-doubt which accompanies every challenge we set ourselves, every opportunity we hope to profit from and which is amplified by every “no” we get back in return.

The thing is, I'm openly honest about my acceptance of negative feedback and my welcoming of it (so long as it's constructive, of course) and I always like to think myself above the sort of aforementioned reaction to rejections. I am fully aware of the amount of rejections writers go through - I expect it, even - and, after the five panic-stricken minutes, I usually come to my senses; I remember that I can write, I am good at it and I bloody love it.

In a previous blog entry, Maia Walczak spoke of how writing is therapeutic, and I agree. My writing has got me through some very tough times in the past and I often find my personal experiences, thoughts and feelings influence and strengthen my writing. One such inspired short story got attention from publishing company Ether Books resulting in my first published short story; one which brought its readers to tears.

A widely discussed topic is that of writers and their affinity with mental illness. You may hear talk of how “all the greats were depressed” and stories of isolation and loneliness leading to despair. It can happen in many careers, but an article in the Guardian sparked by an American health research website stated that writing is one of the top 10 professions in which people are most likely to suffer from depression.

Reflecting upon this, it can be observed that being a writer both helps an individual (working through problems via therapeutic creativity) but can also lead to mental distress (it is a lonely profession). It's hardly a surprising statistic that writers are so susceptible, given those repeated “rejection dejection” episodes. And that's just the start.

As a script consultant, I am very supportive of writers and I always endeavour to give fair and constructive criticism in reports; being honest yet encouraging. I like to think that this enables me to approach my own drafts objectively and to use feedback effectively, but I'd say that rejection is always going to be a personal thing which will be taken to heart by a writer and – depending on the writer's disposition – reacted to in different ways. No matter how thick-skinned, writers will still get burnt.

Passion is what drives writers to create, and it's this passion which also feeds into the therapeutic side of writing and what I like to call “rejection objection”; not abusive retorts to  disagreeable feedback and rejections but a sod-that-minor-setback attitude with which writers can reassess their “rejection dejection” and turn it into something positive, perhaps even recycling that negative energy into fighting spirit. For more tips on turning negatives into positives, check out my guest post on the London Screenwriter's Festival blog.

Brit Writers, have you suffered “rejection dejection” recently? How did you overcome it?

  

Michelle Goode is a script reader, editor and writer who operates from her little online empire: www.writesofluid.com, where she compiles writing resources, writes her blog and offers her services. When she's not creating fictional worlds through scripts and prose or writing articles, she's helping strengthen the work of others or assessing scripts for production companies, competitions and initiatives. Follow her adventures on her Facebook writer page, Writesofluid page and on twitter: @Sofluid.