Today’s guest post, brought to you by author Steena Holmes and the good people at Women on Writing (WOW), is on a topic that is, unfortunately, near and dear to my heart: rejection. I’ve not been doing this writing thing for very long, and I knew it wouldn’t be all sunshine and roses, with an insta-bestseller pouring out of me and agents and publishers lined up for miles, begging to let them shower me with money and contracts. I knew it wouldn’t. Really. But still…

I’ve read about how Stephen King threw Carrie in the trash, how he got years of rejection letters, how his wife saved the day (and the manuscript) - and thank god for all that, because I do love me some classic King horror. I wasn’t really looking forward to that experience though. I knew I’d have to get a lot of nos before I got any yesses, didn’t expect that everyone would love everything I write. But I didn’t think the rejections would sting quite so much either. And they do. Believe me. And I have a lot of them. Believe me again. And those are just for the short stories - I haven’t even gotten to the novel(s) yet. If it hurts to have someone tell you that the 4000 word story you spent a week or so on isn’t good enough for publication, I can only imagine the joys in store when I hear multiple someones tell me the same thing about the 75,000+ opus I spent a year or more on… Blech.
Continue reading Guest Post: Using Rejection to Your Advantage, by Steena Holmes - and a Scavenger Hunt!