Why I Keep Writing, Even When I Get Rejected and Don’t Want To

Most people have experienced rejection in their lives, and it isn’t the best feeling. I started submitting stories just over a year ago, in June 2021, and have received over 150 rejections – not including the places I haven’t heard back from – but I keep writing. I’ve been directly told that my writing is ‘poor’ from a magazine editor, but I keep writing. I’ve been told that my stories are ‘bad’, but I keep writing.

So, stories are being rejected by magazines. That’s nothing new. Who cares?

I ‘m not about to win a bunch of prizes for my work, and I’m not the most vocal person I know, but I think it’s important for writers to keep writing, even when they’re rejected, and for anybody to keep working at whatever it is they’re working on, even if it’s not at the stage they like. I used to not submit my work and would keep writing despite never sending any of it out, because I feared rejection. But now that I have received rejections, it’s given me the urge to keep writing. Part of this is an urge to prove people wrong, but the other part is a need to keep writing and producing newer ideas, better ideas, and to continue growing as a creative.

One of the two things I do with rejection letters is remind myself that it’s very likely my story wasn’t a great fit for the publication. That’s just a reason to keep writing and keep submitting. The other thing I tell myself is that the feedback I receive will either be something I can or can’t trust, but only time will tell, and that means that I should keep writing, even if my story got rejected. But even with the rejections, all it could necessarily mean is that the story wasn’t right for the magazine or website, and this just motivates me to keep writing.

I recently sold two stories in the space of two weeks, which came out of nowhere, and out of curiosity, I checked how many other places I’d sent the stories to. I sent the first story to 15 places, and the other to 10 publications. That’s a combined 25 submissions for two acceptances, and I consider myself lucky that it was picked up at all. That’s a lot of rejections, but all I could do in that time was keep writing, keep working on my stories and refining what I’d written. It took me a lot of time, but I finally found a home for both of these stories, and it gave me two affirmations:

1. That my writing was getting better
2. That deciding to keep writing had been working.

I sometimes feel like I should stop writing, throw in the towel, and do something else with my life. But I keep writing, even when I think I should stop, because it’s become a part of me that hungers to keep working.

I keep writing, even when I get rejected, because I have ideas I need to get on the page. I keep writing, even when my stories are rejected, because it has kept me going in my darkest, most depressed moments. I keep writing, even when I’m constantly receiving rejections, because it feels great to do so when I’m at my happiest. I keep writing, eveen with hundreds of rejections, because I have want to create and can’t draw. And I think the most important reason for anybody to write, is that I keep writing, even when my work is rejected, because I’m doing it first and foremost for myself.

I keep writing for myself, because no matter how many rejections I receive, there are stories I want to tell myself, and maybe, one day, tell others.

What motivates you to keep writing when you’re being rejected or not in the best headspace? I’d love to hear what makes to keep writing!

Until next time,

Conrad 🙂