When Getting a Rejection Email is the Best Part of Your Week

Book Project Week Five Update

What I learned this week: Nothing (about book writing). Or maybe that some days, some weeks will be like this, when the book project doesn’t make the list of priorities.

But this time around, it’s not because I’m scared to write or procrastinating, or giving into perfectionism. This time it’s for a legitimate reason. This time I know I’m still committed, and this week is a blip, not a sign that I’ll give up on my project altogether.

Right after I sent my last update, including my hope for getting a pitch accepted, I received a rejection email from the editor.

I’m sharing it with you, because it was a thoughtful, kind response that I didn’t expect. I dreaded silence or casual cruelty and received neither. I’m sharing it because I hope you’ll send out your own query or pitch and just see what happens (and then tell me about it if you want). I’m sharing it to remind myself and you that most shit is really not as scary as we make it out to be.

After getting that rejection, I still applied to a writer’s residency for next year, and pitched my essay to the two magazines the editor suggested. I still put together a free resource article about How to Get Your Ass in the Chair and Words on the Page. I still got up and showered and cooked dinner and did some work and took some walks and kissed and hugged people I love and talked to some friends, and that’s enough for a week like this.

I’m pretty fucking proud of myself.

What made me want to quit:

• Being pre-occupied with difficult personal stuff this week and not having the energy or time to write
• Wondering if my new structure actually makes sense and is any better than the old structure
• Having a pitch rejected that I thought had a good chance of being accepted and questioning myself

What kept me going:

• Reading the whole rejection email and being grateful for the kindness and thoughtfulness of the editor who wrote it
• Realizing that I’ve created an actual writing practice this time and that this week is just a bad week, not an all-out failure
• Plenty of opportunities to practice giving myself some grace

Week Five Stats: Finished no new chapter and wrote zero new words, but fixed my structure, pitched an essay to two online magazines, and applied to one writing residency