Rejections come and go, but, never lose heart.

Rajesh H
Rajesh H
Nov 5 · 3 min read
Image courtesy: pixabay.com

At the outset, I need to say a big thank you to Kern Carter for providing an opportunity to talk about rejection. I am from India, a diverse country with as many as twenty-two official languages and many more unaccounted variations in dialect. I started writing in my mother tongue, Kannada. I started writing as a hobby. I used to write short stories and poetry privately. I am not a professional writer, nor am I trained in creative writing or Mass Media. Simply because I couldn’t afford the tuition fee for such a course, I couldn’t get trained in one. My friends and family kept on pushing me to try my luck in getting stories published in mainstream media.I wrote and edited several scripts. I wrote hundreds of query letters to leading publishers, magazines and daily newspapers. I did not get a single reply.

It is only my passion that keeps me going even today. I will quote two instances of heart-breaking rejections. In one instance, I sent my short stories to one of the leading publishers. There was no immediate rejection from them. It lay with them for nearly six months. I waited till my patience ran out. Then I made a personal call to the editorial team. They asked me to resend the article to the editor-in-chief. A ray of hope shimmered within me, plenty of odds stacked against my hope, I sincerely hoped that my wish to get at least one short story published would come true. One fine morning, an email popped into my inbox and my heart started pumping with anticipation just to find a professional rejection letter again.

I tried my luck in an online platform. The editor had a long chat with me on the phone. Alas! One article finally got published. Maybe, not a great platform in terms of popularity or remuneration, nonetheless, it was still acceptable. Some kind of start, some sort of balm soothing my soul, some form of encouragement to believe that I can write. Later three of my short stories got published in a row in the same online portal.

Rejection is part of growth. In the second instance, I got a rejection letter Yesterday. It was there for three months under review. The editorial team was in constant touch with me. I even had to translate it into English. I believed and still do so, that it was one of the best short stories I have written. Yet! I got the rejection letter again. It was immensely disappointing. I sulked, but, picked up myself again. The whole saga begins again. I remembered the quote from the movie Rocky Balboa, “It’s not about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward.” I truly believe these words instill faith and hope in thousands like me. Apologies, if my grammar has mistakes and English is not great.

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