By A.C. Williams by @acw_author

Waiting is one of the hardest processes I’ve ever had to learn how to navigate. I’m not a particularly patient person, so having to wait for anything is a struggle. 

But there’s a part of me that would be happy to continue waiting. It’s the part of me that dreads rejection. The ubiquitous form letter that tells me my story isn’t what the publisher was looking for. 

I remember the first rejection letter I received. I think I was nineteen. I’d submitted a stage play to be published, and I had such high hopes for it. We’d performed it, perfected it, and it was the best work I’d done. Surely someone would take it.

Nope. Hello, form letter. 

Short stories and novels followed, and I got the same response most times. Sorry, not what we’re looking for. No, we don’t need that kind of a story. 

Fast forward about ten years, and I had hired my first professional editor. In all the years I’d been writing, I’d never had a real edit. I knew there would be comments. I expected that I’d need to make changes. I did not expect it to be a bloodletting. Well, maybe an ink-letting, rather? 

My editor killed five pens on this manuscript. The paper was hemorrhaging red ink. Some blank ink got mixed in there too because she ran out of red pens, bless her.

It was awful. 

And what made it worse was that she was completely and totally right. 

Every piece of feedback, every note of critique, every line dripping with red was honest, fair, and true. So, no, I wasn’t upset with her. I was mortified at myself. How could I have thought it was ready? How could I been so blind to miss the gaping holes in my story? How could I even consider myself a writer if this was the best I could offer? 

I know. I have a dramatic side. 

The truth is that receiving critique and feedback on your writing is heart wrenching. When you pour so much of yourself and your own experiences into a story, having someone callously disregard scenes you personally lived feels dismissive and invalidating. 

Dear storyteller, please hear me. That story you have poured your heart and soul into is beautiful, but it’s not who you are. Your manuscript doesn’t define you. Criticism of your manuscript isn’t criticism of you, and it certainly shouldn’t make you feel as though your life experiences have been invalid or not important. 

Rejection of your story isn’t rejection of you.

Yes, it’s hard. It hurts. Even now, after a decade of doing this author thing professionally, I still want to cry and crawl under a blanket and eat chocolate for a week whenever I get an edit back. Sometimes I still do.

Don’t give an editor or a publisher the power to invalidate you. They can only do that if you allow them to. Editors and publishers have a job to do, and if your manuscript isn’t ready to go out into the wide world, they’d only be hurting you if they said yes. 

In every instance I listed, I wasn’t ready. My scripts were ready. My short stories and novels weren’t ready. My friends, I wasn’t ready as a person. 

When you get negative feedback or harsh criticism in response to your manuscript, it’s okay to feel hurt. It’s okay to feel irritated and disappointed and frustrated. But if a response is necessary (with most publishers it isn’t, by the way), give yourself two weeks before you respond.

Don’t get focused on criticism. It may be that your story still needs work. It may be that your audience isn’t ready. It may be that the time just isn’t right. All of those things can change, so don’t give up.

No matter what, your value to God never changes. Focus on that. Who knows? What you’re learning right now may be exactly what you need to know in order to take the next steps toward getting published.

Award-winning author A.C. Williams is a coffee-drinking, sushi-eating, story-telling nerd who loves cats, country living, and all things Japanese. She’d rather be barefoot, and if she isn’t, her socks won’t match. She has authored eight novels, three novellas, three devotional books, and more flash fiction than you can shake a stick at. A senior partner at Uncommon Universes Press, she is passionate about stories and the authors who write them. Learn more about her book coaching and follow her adventures online at www.amycwilliams.com.