When Getting a Rejection Email is the Best Part of Your Week

Book Project Week Five Update

What I learned this week: Nothing (about book writing). Or maybe that some days, some weeks will be like this, when the book project doesn’t make the list of priorities.

But this time around, it’s not because I’m scared to write or procrastinating, or giving into perfectionism. This time it’s for a legitimate reason. This time I know I’m still committed, and this week is a blip, not a sign that I’ll give up on my project altogether.

Right after I sent my last update, including my hope for getting a pitch accepted, I received a rejection email from the editor.

I’m sharing it with you, because it was a thoughtful, kind response that I didn’t expect. I dreaded silence or casual cruelty and received neither. I’m sharing it because I hope you’ll send out your own query or pitch and just see what happens (and then tell me about it if you want). I’m sharing it to remind myself and you that most shit is really not as scary as we make it out to be.

After getting that rejection, I still applied to a writer’s residency for next year, and pitched my essay to the two magazines the editor suggested. I still put together a free resource article about How to Get Your Ass in the Chair and Words on the Page. I…