Received another rejection letter today. The total is now 15 rejection letters with 1 of positive feedback. Break it down further and it’s this: 6 no responses, 9 actual rejection letters. And to break it down even further, it’s this: 8 form rejection letters and 1 personalized rejection letter.
I’m sitting here listening to my friend Gareth Asher’s song “Break” and it’s kind of how I feel right now. “Got fear sitting right along by me in the passenger side. Somebody break. Somebody better break. Somebody break, before we take a fall.” July and August have been a very long, busy, & tiresome two months in my real world job. I feel it has beaten me down to a soulless drone, but I do love my real world job and I’ll take the 2 months of busting ass for a soon to be weekend completely off of work. But because I’ve feel like I’ve been beaten down, this 15th rejection letter could have just stayed out in the wonderful internet world of space and I would have been completely fine with it being a no response rejection.
For the first time, my heart just broke while reading it. It stung worse than the previous 8 letters and it dashed any hope I had. So I sent a message out to the Twitter world that read: Another rejection letter but I will continue querying & writing. “If I’m not getting rejected I’m not reaching far enough.” by @SusanAkaSARK
I meant my tweet. I will still write & query. It’s not in me to give up on my dreams. I might set them aside for love (as I regretfully did when I was in my early twenties & thought I knew what love was) and I might set them aside for a career (which I happily did in my late twenties), but I’ve never given up on them. The quote I found on Monday from Sark, an author who has always given me a sense of hope and inspiration, was perfect and even more perfect today.
Then I had 3 friends reply back with the following:
you’re the bomb and so is your book! Love you Sistah Bear!! @YOOOadrienne
we all believe in you and will be first in line for your very first book signing!!!@parneezy
Keep going! Your book is amazing and you owe it to your characters and future readers to get it published! @Nellie429
Keep going! Your book is amazing and you owe it to your characters and future readers to get it published! @Nellie429
The support I have is amazing. The above support is amazing and as Malcolm Gladwell said in his book THE OUTLIERS “no one ever makes it alone.” Though I may feel it at times, I am not alone.
So…
I will not break. I will not give up. Something will break but it will not be my spirit, it will not be dream, and it will not be my stride.
I will raise my head high, square my shoulders, and sing very loud, “Ain’t nothing gonna break my stride. Nobody gonna slow me down. I got to keep on moving. Ain’t nothing gonna break my stride. I’m running and I won’t touch ground. I got to keep on moving.”
Listening to “Break My Stride” by Matthew Wilder
(This is my rejection letter theme song. It has been from the 1st one and will be until the last one)
