Yesterday I went on a little shopping spree. I bought an orchid, a nice pot to put it in, a couple of scented wax melts, some fancy hand cream, and some chocolate. In other words, an array of little things to make my living space look prettier and smell nicer (and with two small boys in the house bad odours are never far away), plus something to nourish the skin on my hard-working hands. Also some chocolate. Because, as I tell every barista who makes me a cappuccino, I never say no to chocolate.
The reason for this shopping spree? I’ve just sold a short story to Kaleidotrope Magazine, and, as I always do when I make a sale, I cracked open my rejection tin and spent the money therein. The story is a science fiction piece called ‘Calverpax’ with the subtitle ‘An Oral History of a Human Tragedy’. It’s about mistranslations, the difficulties of diplomacy between space-spanning civilisations, the people on the ground who suffer when mistakes are made at the highest levels, and the hope that can bloom in the darkest places when people remember their shared humanity. It’s a good story, though I say so myself, although it probably won’t be coming out until next Spring, so you’ve got a bit of a wait until you can read it.
So for today I’d like to tell you about this rejection tin, one of the best ideas I’ve ever stolen from someone else on social media.
The concept is simple. Every time I receive a rejection for something I’ve written, I put a pound coin in the tin. Every time I make a sale, I open up the tin and spend the accumulated pound coins on nice things for myself. The beauty of the system is that it turns every rejection into a chance to invest in treats for future me. And, the longer it takes to make a sale, the more money accumulates, so the more treats I can buy!
It’s a neat way to manage the negative emotions around rejection, and give myself the opportunity for a bit of indulgence. The other great thing about this system is that it establishes rejection as being an important — even an essential — part of the process. Truth is, you can’t get anywhere in writing without sending your work out into the world in one form or another, and that’s inevitably going to expose you to criticism and rejection as well as possible acclaim. You’ll never get a story published in a magazine unless you’re sending a lot of stories to a lot of magazines, and hence receiving a lot of rejections.
I used to feel terrible about all the rejections I was getting, and I’ll be honest, they do still sting. But these days, I tell myself, it’s just another stone on the road, and another pound coin in the tin, and it’ll all build up to something good eventually. And you know what? It always does.
