Wednesday, January 20, 2016

How to read a rejection

I got a rejection yesterday. It's a funny thing about rejections by email. Your eyes register the name of the person the email is from. You open the email with all virtual fingers crossed, and when it's open, you do not read it from the top, oh no. Your eyes skip straight to the sign off, because from the sign off you can immediately tell the tenor of the email. If, for example, it says "Wishing you every success with your project" you know it's a rejection. So you take a deep breath, and harden your heart, and only then do you allow your eyes to go to the top of the email and read the thing properly. Then you take in all the nice things they say about your writing. 

Then you close the email and tell your nearest and dearest. 

Then you go back to your computer and forward the offending missive to those (and only those) of your friends and family who will understand fully 
a/ how gutted you are 
b/ exactly the right way to respond.

What happens next depends on how much you were depending on this particular professional to love your project as much as you do. If you previously thought that they were "the one," you spend the rest of your day "treating yourself" to an extra glass of wine, and then a pudding after tea of Haagen Dazs chocolate ice cream (when you usually eschew all puddings.)

The next day you feel very annoyed by the reasons they give that they couldn't pursue your project, even though (and especially because) there was so much about it that they liked.

Then you blog about it.

And the next day you think - OMG, that was not very professional to blog about it. Then you think - What difference will it actually make? And then, if you had thought this professional was "the one," you think - FFS. I am finished, and nothing further will ever happen to any of my writing.

And tomorrow I will tell you what happened next.

4 comments:

marmee said...

all that comes to my mind is how much you have accomplished...there is the novel (s) and then followed the script ...

and I am sorry and cross on your behalf but at the same time so in awe of all of it!

Sue Hepworth said...

Thank you, Marmme. True friend.

ana said...

Virtual hug coming your way

You know when I read your own last line my heart lifted, it really did. You are not one pushover lady and it shows in your blog and your spirit

Sue Hepworth said...

Thank you, Ana. Another true friend.