Writing in the face of rejection. Through it all, always remember, believe in yourself. If you don't how can you expect others to do so.

When I finally decided I wanted to become a writer, my head was filled with all of the glitz and glory success stories of famous writers like Mary Higgins Clark, Terry McMillan, and Maya Angelou. “Hey, if they can write and earn all those huge royalty checks, why can’t I? I asked myself “Who knows, I might even get a chance to be profiled on Oprah,” I eagerly thought.
And so my writing life began. I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz as the words flowed across my computer screen. As I wrote, I had a co-worker who offered to review and edit my work. Within weeks, I’d written a couple of fiction short stories and a few essays, with one in particular growing as I wrote and rewrote after each edit. I’d even wrote several poems, although I’d never consider myself a poet, because I don’t particularly like poetry Well, wouldn’t you know it my co-worker liked my poems also.
“Wow,” I thought. “I must be good at this writing thing I told myself.”
I gave copies of my personal essay, based on the loss of a love one through death, to several friends who were going through the grief process and they commented how much my writing helped them to understand what they were going through, further bolstering my ego.
The essay had gotten so long with the many revisions and additions that it was suddenly taking on the look of a book. After months of writing and editing, and getting positive feedback from the few people I’d let see my work, I purchased the Writer’s Market book of editors, agents, publishing presses that I could send my work, in hopes of getting published. First, I compiled a list of all the agents in the book that published works similar to mine. Secondly, from that list, I compiled another list, listing first the agents who accepted submissions by email and then the ones who requested them by mail.
My excitement level was in outer space, as I emailed my manuscript to agents following their guidelines to the letter. Some agents preferred only query letters while others wanted outlines, table of contents, sample chapter(s), etc. In a week’s time, I estimate sending out fifty emails. And then I anxiously waited.
I’d read stories in magazines, books and on the Internet about rejection letters, but I remember as I did I thought, ““Uh, uh, not me. That stuff happens to other people. They (agents) are going to love my work so I don’t have to worry about getting rejected.” Boy was I wrong. Within hours, the rejection emails started pouring in, one after the other.
As I read the first one over and again, I remembered the contents of my manuscript, loss and the grief process and I recognized I was experiencing the first two stages of the grief process, disbelief and anger. Disbelief in that I couldn’t believe that I was being rejected. “This was not supposed to happen to me. Other people maybe, but not me,” I said, and then the anger. “Who in the hell he/she think they are?
After moments of basking in the anger stage, I eventually used the anger to fuel my creative energies. As I continued reading the rest of the rejection letters, some offering encouragement and wishing me success with placing my work, I recognized that some were simply form letters. I decided I wasn’t going to let their opinion of my work deter me from my goal and that is getting published because I know what I have written in my book is going to help someone.
You know the saying, “The smell of success is oh so sweet,” and after getting my first acceptance letter on my work, I can attest to the truthfulness of that saying.
Through the rejections, I continued writing and submitted some of my works for inclusion in various anthologies. When I received my first acceptance email, I can tell you I was on cloud nine. I remember, it was late one night and as I jumped in bed, I woke my husband and proudly told him I’d sold my first letter for inclusion in a Celebrations Anthology for Twenty-five Dollars.
Since that first letter, six other letters have been accepted as well as a poem I wrote in honor on my late son, Jalen, as well as one of my short stories coming in as a runner up in a short story contest and a personal essay being accepted for an anthology about faith.
Although I am still searching for a publisher for my book, I am still writing. I am working on my first fiction novel and have approximately twenty-five poems. I love writing and each rejection letter that I now receive just inspires me to write some more. I recognize that each rejection is just someone’s opinion and decided that if I base my writing life on what someone else thinks, then I should just give it up.
I’ve decided to live by this motto as I write. “One man’s trash (rejection letter) is another man’s treasure.” I consider my writing treasure and I am confident that my book is going to get published even if I have to resort to self-publish. Wasn’t Michael Jordan cut from his college basketball team when he first tried out? Imagine what he would have missed out on if he’d listened to that college coach and given up then?
Simply put, I write because writing makes me happy. I began writing as a way of healing through my grief with the loss of my mother and son. It (writing) has helped me to heal so I have already accomplished my goal and that is helping people. I am my first customer. And if along the way, I can help someone else along the way with what I write, then that’s an added bonus for me.