I was in a writing workshop recently and one of the writers was talking about the hardships of repeated rejection. Her work had been rejected so many times that she asked of everyone, “How do you keep going?”
It is well known that rejection is part of the writing process. Everyone from J.K. Rowling and Kwame Alexander to George Orwell and Madeleine L’Engle has had to deal with a version of no thanks it’s not for me, or not today or just a flat-out no it’s rubbish and you’ve got no future as a writer. It’s heartening and laughable to look back at these rejections in hindsight. But what if you’re not J.K. Rowling? Or Kwame Alexander? And let’s be honest, you’re not. You can’t be. There’s only one J.K. and there’s only one of you.
So how do you keep going in the face of repeated rejection?
For what it’s worth my answer is this:
Write from the heart.
What I mean by that is write the stories that light you up. Write about the things you care about deeply, the things that matter to you, the things that make you feel alive, human. Not what you think you should be writing, but the stories that are still there when everything else gets stripped away. I don’t say this lightly. I know that writing is hard and that hearts are fragile. I know that writing can be lonely, demoralising, bewildering, dispiriting. I know this because I’ve been doing it for years and I’m definitely not J.K. Rowling.
But I value my work whether or not it gets published. I value my stories because I know that writing from the heart takes courage. It takes courage and perseverance and immense determination. So, if you dare to sit down at a desk and even try to write a story, I commend you. If you somehow manage to get to the end of a first draft, I commend you. And then… if you manage to go even further and get to a place where you revise your story – and I mean truly revise it, which can involve major changes, starting all over again or recognising that actually there’s something else you needed to say all along, then I whole-heartedly celebrate you.
Lots of writers talk about winning awards, hitting lists, selling thousands of copies, securing movie deals and so on. There’s nothing wrong with that or dreaming of those external measures of success. But where I resist that kind of thinking is when it leads to the perceived notion that if you haven’t published anything, let alone won an award, then your work doesn’t matter. That you’re not really a writer. That your work is not worthwhile.
You are a writer because you write, whether you are published or not. Daring to tell a story, daring to write from the heart takes courage, perseverance and immense determination. So, if you show up at your desk, if you do the work, if you dare to write what matters to you and put it down on the page, that alone is something to take pride in. It is not easy and anyone who says otherwise hasn’t done it. Cynics will dismiss this idea with a wry shake of the head, as if they know better. Well, it’s easy to be a cynic. Much easier than being a writer.
There’s one other piece of the market side of things that’s worth bearing in mind: there is a significant element of luck that goes into whether or not a book gets picked up. Editors have an enormous amount of work to manage, fluke timing is a huge part of which emails get read and when. As writers, we don’t get to control that. The only thing we get to control is whether or not we do the work. Whether or not we show up. Whether or not we keep writing.
Last thing, but it’s important: when you write from the heart you are offering something of yourself to the reader, to one single reader. And perhaps that reader is you. Just you. Or perhaps it’s your best friend, or your daughter or a grandchild. Or perhaps it’s a total stranger. But know that each and every single reader is an individual. They matter. You matter. All it takes is for one person to read your work. Perhaps they are even moved by it. Perhaps you are moved by it. And if your story goes on to touch thousands, then so be it, but know that one single reader is enough.
When you write from the heart you are being brave. You are working hard. You are being your best self, you are creating and doing what lights you up. That is not easy. It is something to be proud of. And for me at least, it’s how to keep going.
113 Countries from above - collection of photographs by Yann Arthus-Bertrand