A few months ago I took a deep breath and hit the submit button, twice. The first time was for a writing fellowship, the second for a short story. If you've been reading along since the start of this blog then you know that I'm a new writer, so I'm sure you also know where this is going.

This month I received responses to my submissions. Both were rejections. 

The writing community, at least as I've encountered it, does a pretty good job preparing new writers for rejection. Many authors are open in discussing their query histories: referring to the whole process as a sort of rite of passage, a step in the right direction. If your work is rejected at least that means you're putting it out there for the world to see - good for you! You Go Glen Coco! Writers are cautioned not to take rejections personally; that if your work is not accepted it could be simply due to the particular temperment of the reviewer on a singular date in time.

So it was with something like excitement that I collected my first rejections and made them a folder on my desktop. Item #5, right after the folders for Novels, Short Stories, Essays, and Blog Ideas (I like to organize things, a favorite procrasination strategy). Ha! Here I am world, a rejected writer! That being said, thrilling though it was to receive these first rejections it still sucked!  Marlon James had a point when he said, "We shouldn't romanticize rejection. There's nothing romantic about rejection. It's horrible." It seems to me that rejection's true poison is not in the danger of quitting, but is in the seeds of doubt it sows.  Where before there was wreckless abandon, now there is the slightest hesitation before pushing that submit button for a second, third, fourth time (or more!).

I'm not sure what to do, I don't have an answer except to keep on keepin' on. Submit again anyway? Use your "no's" as rocket fuel to keep going - as an inspiration of mine, Molly Ola Pinney,  always says?  Read quotes that are a bit more inspirational (sorry Marlon James!)? Maybe I'll start there.

"Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm" - Winston Churchill