One of the most important pieces of writing advice to absorb when you start writing can feel the most brutal to hear—but it will stand you in good stead in the long run. This week, we’re talking about rejection with guest author and The Novelry graduate, Rosie Storey.
Rejection is a natural part of the writing process, whether you’re an aspiring writer or a well-known name with several published novels. All good writers face rejection at one time or another, sometimes because the story isn’t quite there, the characters aren’t sharp enough, the writing needs more polishing—or even because, while those things might all hit the mark, perhaps the agent or publisher you’ve heard from just happened to sign a book that’s somewhat similar to yours.
And while there’s very little we can do about rejection, what we are in control of is what we do with it and the feelings it evokes within us. You may allow yourself some time to feel that hit of self-doubt, but you can also learn to grow around these moments of low self-esteem.
On our blog today, newly published author Rosie Storey is here to show you how.
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Rosie Storey joined The Novelry in 2023 and was introduced to her agent Jemima Forrester at DHA through our bespoke submission service. Her debut novel Dandelion is Dead hits bookstores across the U.S. this week! TV rights to adapt Rosie’s novel have also been snapped up by See-Saw Films, a production company with BAFTA, Emmy, and Oscar wins.
Here, Rosie generously shares her own experiences of rejection as part of the writer’s life and how she uses these moments to brighten her creative spark.
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Rejection is part of the writing process
Last summer, a week after I received international book deals for my debut novel, a rejection from a writing competition I’d entered earlier in the year landed in my inbox. Even though I was indisputably on Cloud Nine, my delight was punctured and I fell back to earth, landing rather uncomfortably as I read the feedback from the judges. Apparently, my female protagonist was “weak” and my male protagonist “unlikeable”, and this was only the tip of the iceberg on the three pages of feedback so caustic that, had it not been for the fact I’d just signed a book deal, I would have been tempted to give up writing altogether.
If I wind back even further to the very start of that year, I was doing everything I could to find an agent willing to take me on. One way a writer can raise their profile and their visibility in the great literary bun fight is by entering competitions, and so I’d sent off the opening of my manuscript to quite a few over the years, with varying degrees of success and failure.
When the submission window opened for this particular competition, I ummed and ahhed about whether to enter at all. On the one hand, at £39 it wasn’t cheap, and I was feeling financially challenged. On the other hand, the competition had secured accomplished judges, including a literary agent and an editor at an established publishing house. The guidance also stated that every entry would receive feedback.
By that point, I’d been writing a novel for nearly a decade and had racked up a slew of agent rejections. Although dispirited, I was still determined, and keen for professional feedback, so I bit the bullet and sent off the first 10,000 words of my novel. (This was, it goes without saying, before I had been introduced to The Novelry.)
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What I needed was feedback. What I didn’t need, however, what no writer needs, is to be discouraged and put down without a pat on the back.
Unless... What if I did?
Learning to interrogate a rejection letter
Of course, you can’t please everyone. Therefore, not all feedback, criticism, or indeed praise should be taken on board. Over the years, working on writing courses, with students, and with editors at The Novelry and now within publishing houses, I’ve learnt to interrogate my own response to other people’s opinions on my work.
Sometimes, I might know immediately that the other party is totally right, and what’s more, it becomes apparent to me that subconsciously I knew something wasn’t working all along. Sometimes, I simply do not agree, and that’s okay. It’s important to stay true to our own voice, style, and ideas, and listen to our gut instincts. Authenticity is crucial for a writer, and so is discernment.
Sometimes, however, I know that my issue with the feedback or the rejection comes solely from my sensitive and wounded writer’s ego—and that’s okay too. It’s more than okay, it’s great. It is my sensitivity that enables me to create and empathise with well-rounded fictional characters, and it is my ego that enabled me to carry on writing after the tenth agent rejection I received.
If we only found our worth as writers from what other people thought of us, not what we believed about ourselves, we wouldn’t last five minutes. Being hurt by rejection is natural. Feel the feelings, and then let go of them and consider what it was about your story that wasn’t working for the other person.
Is it just that they are not your desired audience? Or is it that you are too close to your story to see the moments when your character is unsympathetic, or the plot begins to sag?
Even if a rejection comes with no feedback at all, as so many agent rejections do, you can still take that as a difficult lesson. Something about your work isn’t landing.
It’s important to stay true to our own voice, style, and ideas, and listen to our gut instincts. Authenticity is crucial for a writer, and so is discernment.
—Rosie Storey
Rejection is not a verdict on your writing career
Death and taxes are inevitable in life. For writers, rejection belongs firmly on that list too.
Before Dandelion is Dead, there was another novel I worked on for three years. I drafted it nine times. It will never see the light of day.
Although I am well into my writing career, I am at the start of my journey as a published novelist, and so far, I have accrued a myriad of rejections.
There were the agent rejections, of course, but also the quieter failures. The awkward conversations with family, friends, and colleagues when another year went by and I had nothing tangible to show for all the time I was spending alone at my laptop. When a book goes out on submission to agents and publishers, there will always be rejections in the mix, even if the book goes to auction.
Even after getting my publishing deal, there have been plenty of moments where I’ve felt not good enough, or overlooked, or painfully aware of the thousands of writers I could compare myself to every single day on social media. And that’s before we even mention Book Two, which I am currently finding hard and humbling, and fear the looming rejections.
If we only found our worth as writers from what other people thought of us, not what we believed about ourselves, we wouldn’t last five minutes. Being hurt by rejection is natural. Feel the feelings, and then let go of them and consider what it was about your story that wasn’t working for the other person.
—Rosie Storey
Preserve your creative spark
At this point, I know the “not for us” emails, the one-star reviews, and the polite “no thank you”s will keep coming. Some I should listen to. Some I should disregard. What I also know is that persistence, the willingness to sit down on the bad days, the determination to keep going, and the courage to kill a lot of darlings can pay off.
Looking back, I can now see many of my rejections as the stepping stones that took me where I was trying to get to. That is impossible to know in the moment. It’s hard to believe at the time. But it helps to try, and to trust.
A supportive writing community matters enormously here. Other writers will buoy your spirits after a painful rejection in a way no one else can. Writing is a peculiar and particular mental endeavour. It really does take one to know one.
“I’ll show them this time...”
Ideally, we rise above rejection. We don’t take it personally. We remind ourselves that disappointment is part of the job.
But sometimes, if a rejection really hurts, that sting can be channelled into energy. Into a quiet, stubborn determination to keep going. I like to think of a Kingsley Amis quote:
When starting to think about any novel, part of the motive is: I’m going to show them, this time.
—Kingsley Amis in the Paris Review (issue no. 64, winter 1975)
Turn rejection into resolve. Then sit down and write again.
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Dandelion is Dead by Rosie Storey
Jake has fallen head over heels for Dandelion. The only problem? Dandelion is dead.
When Poppy discovers unanswered messages from a charming stranger in her late sister’s dating app, she makes an impulsive choice. She’ll meet him, just once, on what would have been Dandelion’s 40th birthday. It’s exactly the kind of wild adventure her vivacious sister would have pushed her toward.
Jake is ready to find something real—and not least because his ex-wife’s twentysomething boyfriend has moved into their old family home. When he meets the intriguing woman who calls herself Dandelion, their connection is undeniable, and he can think of little else.
As their relationship deepens, Poppy finds herself trapped in a double life she never meant to create. Every moment with Jake feels genuine, electric, and totally right—despite the fact they’re tangled in deceit. As the lines between grief and love blur, Poppy faces a choice: keep her sister’s memory alive through her lies, or risk everything for a chance at her own happiness?
Get your copy of Dandelion is Dead now in the U.S. and preorder in the U.K. Congratulations, Rosie!
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