Stephen King…from On Writing
“By the time I was fourteen … the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the nail with a spike and kept on writing.”
Since I have chosen this year as the one in which to challenge myself, I am jumping in with both feet and this dealing with rejection is something that I am having to learn how to do…how to cope and not let the rejections stop me in my tracks…
A number of articles that I read regarding dealing with rejection said that you had to separate yourself from your work…while it may be your baby, your ever so personal creation…an outpouring of your soul…like a child, you have to set it free…send it out into the world to make it’s own way…
I read further, that when you receive a rejection letter, it isn’t you, personally, that is being rejected…it is that piece, or collection of pieces, of yours that is not being accepted…and many times we aren’t really given any indication as to why…and there are many reasons why your work might not have been chosen…and they certainly are not all because your work doesn’t ‘measure up’…
Recently, there have been 2 events that I submitted to…juried events…and was rejected…both with nice letters…form letters…the main reason given was that there had been so many submissions and there were only a limited number of spaces…both encouraged me to try again next time and one of them suggested other events in my city that I might apply to…
I have to admit that I was momentarily crushed…I am still developing my tough skin…so the rejections do hurt…and even though I tell myself not to let them, they do make me question my worth sometimes…at Karen Phipps' blog – A Visual Journey – she writes that the degree to which we react to a rejection depends on how much hope we had built up in being accepted…
I am learning to deal with these rejections and I’m sure that the more I keep plugging myself, the better I will get…at many things…at handling the rejections, at promoting myself, at learning which things I should be pursuing and which I should leave…and all the while improving my art…
Art has always been, foremost, a therapy for me…it was into creative activity that I originally retreated to take my mind off life and its difficulties and this led to painting and that led, eventually, to wanting to show my paintings (the house does tend to get full!)…and so, like Karen says at the end of her post about rejection…there is space within the turmoil we are feeling where we can go and create…
And so, on that note...I will be posting some pictures, soon, of the latest WetCanvas project that I have joined!
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3 comments:
I think you are so brave for just starting. I really enjoyed your thought process on rejection.
Can't wait to see your pictures!
I am amazed that you can be so civilized and sanguine. I feel far less polite about rejection! (I do think your reaction is far more mature than my own, by the way:-)
Well the twits. It is their loss. I've been told you're not a real artist or writer until you have a stack of rejection letters. But I don't think that makes it feel any better.
That's probably my favourite part of Stephen King's book On Writing. I recognized it right away. And see, he's doing rather well...
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