why rejection can be a good thing

as requested: my rejection pep talk

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As I mentioned above, I’m a full-time freelance writer, and have been for my entire decade-long journalism career. I’ve written a book (which didn’t sell on first submission), and I’ve penned award-winning features. My work has appeared in nearly every single major publication you can think of: the New York Times, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, Cosmopolitan, The Washington Post, etc etc etc.

In order to be a good freelancer, you have to be able to do two things well: 1) sell the hell out of a story with a great pitch, and 2) handle rejection.

The second thing definitely comes more naturally to some people than others, but it’s also a learned skill. The more you get rejected, the better you get at handling it. But it’s not just practice that makes perfect here; it’s also about the framing. How you look at that rejection really matters.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I find rejection incredibly motivating. When an editor turns down a great story, I become stubbornly convinced to place it somewhere, if only to prove that I was right about the merits of my idea.

So yeah, that kind of grit and determination and just sheer stubbornness is absolutely a reason that I’ve been a successful freelancer (I even track my pitch numbers each year, which includes how many pitches I sent and how many were rejected).

don't shame the process

But it’s more than that, too. It’s also the fact that I don’t see rejection as an inherently bad thing. So, as requested, here is my rejection pep talk.