Recently, when completing a homework assignment in a Beth Moore study, I read a segment she related about a visit with her daughter and her ten month old grandson. She told her daughter, "You'll want to set him up for as many yeses as you can because you're going to find that you will spend much of the next three years saying 'no."Do we purpose to set ourselves up for 'yeses' when we know that "no" or rejection is part and parcel of the writing experience? I remember my first rejection notice. I had sent my baby...a three year work of art...to a publisher expecting they would be honored to receive such a masterpiece. Well, not exactly, but close. What I received was a notice that said I had a lot of work to do before they would even consider my manuscript.
While that may have been true, and looking back it was, it hurt. I thought about ending my writing career right then and there. I'm glad God had other plans for me. Now I've come to understand the attitude of divorcing ourselves from the manuscript and not injesting the comments as personal.
But do we plan some 'yes' events to pick up our spirits at times like this or even before they happen or do we wait for something to happen incidentally. I'd never thought about this quite this way but for instance...
What if we planned a spa visit before we opened the letter? What if we aligned ourselves with a prayer partner and took the publisher response to them so we could pray together about it after opening it? And it's not just publishers. How many of you have been shocked at the response of an editor who wanted you to delete, delete, and revise...again and again. I've had editors mark up my article in so much red ink that it was hard to see what he accepted.
God wants us to write. That's a given. Otherwise, we'd not be doing what we're doing. Does he want to mold us and make us more Christ-like...even through our writing? Then we need to plan some 'yeses' in your life...some positive events that build us up and point us back to Him. Time to reflect on the idea that God doesn't make mistakes so if He's asked us to write, then......write and learn to be the best example of Christ in our writing that we can be.
Barbara Ann Derksen's books can be found at Amazon.com in paperback format as well as Kindle. Just search Barbara Ann Derksen and you'll find a great mystery series worth spending some of your 'Yes' time reading.
2 comments:
Barbara, this is so true. We should strive to set our children up for "yes" instead of "no" - even as they go into their teen years. Wise parents will say "yes" whenever possible so that when they have to say "no" there will be a lot of "yeses" in the bank to balance that one "no."
Rejections from publishers can sneak up on us but you're right, we do tend to "go it alone" opening that email from a publisher or editor without getting support from anyone or buoying ourselves up in some way first.
This is a really great idea that you have and one I will think about. Getting rejection news can be so devastating for a writer that we shouldn't walk into that minefield alone. Asking for prayer from a trusted friend, either before or after the bad news, can make the difference between us throwing in the towel and us "keeping on keeping on" as we need to do.
Thanks for your post, Barbara!
Barbara, thank you for sharing these helpful thoughts and approach to our dealing with negative responses to our receiving rejection notices to our written work. Thanks also for your helpful comments, Dorene.
My experience of submitting material -- and therefore receiving responses -- is limited, but I do know the sting of rejection.
I usually submit material in a tentative hope, but precondition myself with the thought that whatever comes of it is for my learning and growth, and the journey.
It's a sort of self-and-sanity-preserving thing -- a caveat.
To pun (btw, I don't know Spanish): "Feliz Caveat, Feliz Caveat!" (accompany it with the catchy tune in your mind). And so, I don't know whether I'll receive a yes or no from the publishing powers that be, but I send the material with a happy (more accurately, "hopeful") caution.
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