Rejection Survivor Interview: Rebecca Entel

I am so excited to introduce not only the shiny new Rejection Survival Guide website, but also a new series to this blog: Rejection Survivor Interviews. So far, everything I’ve shared on this blog has been drawn from my own experiences, and I’ve been thinking that it would be extremely helpful and enriching to draw on the experiences of other creatives who have been in the trenches.

So it is a delight and an honor to introduce you to our first Rejection Survivor, author Rebecca Entel, whose debut novel, Fingerprints of Previous Owners, was released in June this year.

Rebecca Entel is Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Cornell College, where she teaches courses in creative writing, multicultural American literature, Caribbean literature, and the literature of social justice. Her short stories and essays have appeared in such journals as Guernica, Joyland, Literary Hub, and Electric Literature. She lives in Iowa City.

I asked Rebecca about her experiences with rejection, self-doubt, and disappointment. At the end of her interview, I included a summary of the skills Rebecca used to stay resilient in the face of rejection and criticism.

 

When did you first decide to become a writer? Can you tell us about an early piece you wrote that no one’s ever heard of because it stayed in the drawer?

I don’t even remember! As a kid I used to make up my own stories to go along with the pictures in books I’d already read. In elementary school, I got to go an event called the Young Authors’ Conference a few times; we made books ahead of time and got to meet authors there. I still have the book I made in second grade, and I remember getting a book signed by Mercer Mayer.

I have so many pieces in drawers, boxes, and files on old computers that no one has ever seen. (Most embarrassing, if I actually still had it: around age 8 or 9, I set up my Barbie dolls and took a picture of them that I imagined as the cover art for my first novel. I vividly remember setting it up.) {DL: That’s adorable and so creative!}

How did you feel when you received your first rejection, and what motivated you to keep trying?

I don’t remember the first one. I was really young, still a student, and motivated to keep writing. Publishing seemed a long way off in the future, somewhat disconnected from the act of writing – which probably helped me not get dragged down by the rejection.

How did you get from there to where you are now?

I don’t remember the first rejection (or even the first, I don’t know, 50?), but I do remember a turning point when I asked another writer how many places she sent a story at one time. She said 9. That really opened my eyes. {DL: Who is this writer and can I tie her shoelaces together?} I’d been spending so much time trying to find the perfect place (or few places) to send a story that I was being way too selective, and each rejection stung too much. After that conversation, I still made sure to send my stories to appropriate places, but I sent them out in larger batches and started keeping a spreadsheet. When a rejection came in and I logged it, it didn’t bother me quite as much, since I knew the story was still out at x number of places.

I also think it’s important not to get so preoccupied by the submission process that it’s taking away from your writing time. It helps me to know things are out there, that I might hear some good news at any moment, but I’m not focused on it day-to-day; I’m working on something else.

When it looked like your book wasn’t going to find a home, how did that make you feel? Did you manage to hold on to the hope that somehow that book would find a publisher? If so, how?

It’s easy now that the book is published to look back matter-of-factly on the whole process, but at the time it was incredibly difficult. At first, the submission process was fun and exciting, and the rejections I was getting were so complimentary that I was happy to get the feedback and really felt that things would work out the way they had with finding an agent: feeling frustrated with near-misses but ultimately finding that one person who loved my book. As time went on, though, and my agent sounded a little more unsure, I felt really depressed. It didn’t help that I was also having a really difficult year in other ways. It also didn’t help that so many people knew my book was under submission and kept asking about it. Knowing my agent was out there, doing everything she could, helped a lot; when she sent it to more places, that lifted my spirits. Eventually we found the right press, and I’m so glad things worked out the way they did. But the submission process is not for the thin-skinned or impatient.

Something I also learned from the process is that publishing is a separate world from writing. There are so many factors that have nothing to do with how good your book is, and those factors are entirely out of your control. (Some days that made me feel better; other days, worse.)

If you could go back in time right now to speak to yourself during that period, what would you say to yourself?

All you can do is write the best book you possibly can.

What are some typical things your “self-doubt demons” say to you when you’re struggling? How do you silence them?

Whenever I’m working on something, I’m going to go through several stages in which I think it’s the absolutely worst thing I’ve ever done. I have to remind myself that I always feel that way; that helps motivate me to keep going, to keep chipping away to make it better. I try to trust the process.

A few other things that help: knowing I’m always going to have moments when I worry I’ll never have another idea {DL: Me too!!! See under: “Dear I’ll-Never-Have-Another-Good-Idea Demon”}, but somehow new work will come. That’s one of the most fun things about writing. I never know what I’m going to create. It helps to think that way not just about new projects but about existing ones, too, that aren’t good enough yet – to try to work through the frustration by getting excited about what the piece is going to become if I keep working on it.

Do you ever feel jealous of authors who landed deals with the Big 5? What do you do with that jealousy?

I haven’t been particularly focused on the Big 5, but I do suffer from envy when other writers get to write full-time or have less demanding “day” jobs. And of course there are those books that just seem to be raved about everywhere, and then you read them and aren’t wow-ed. I don’t know that you can avoid these feelings entirely. But I try to remember that I don’t know the whole story – I can’t necessarily see the path that led a particular author to what seems like a great situation now. Maybe my path to publication looks really smooth and enviable to others, too; they don’t know all the ups and downs that brought me there. {DL: Yup, yup, yup. See: “How to Not Strangle People Who Are More Successful Than You“}

A few months before my book came out, another writer advised me to keep a journal of all the nice things that happened along the way. She was so right. It’s too easy to let the stress and jealousy, etc., take over. There are so many things to feel good about and to be excited about when your book finally becomes “real.”

What’s the worst rejection or critique you ever received, and how did you recover from it?

This may not be the worst, but one year in high school, I was on the school literary magazine and had a poem published in that year’s edition. We had submitted the magazine to a national competition, and because I was on staff, I saw the critique, which singled out my poem as lower quality than the rest of the work in the magazine. {DL: Oooh, ouch.} I was pretty devastated and embarrassed, and I definitely wondered if writing was really for me – if my work was the worst, and that was just at the high school level!

Now I’m a professor, and that experience helps me remember that, especially as a student/young writer, negative feedback on one piece can feel like a final verdict on whether you have any talent. It’s not. It’s just one piece. I’m not sure how I convinced myself of that at the time. But I always felt a compulsion to write, more for myself than for others, and since I was so young, I also had the opportunity to take classes and workshops, so continuing to write was all about learning and improving. I’m actually glad that along the way I had situations where some of my work didn’t receive praise. I needed praise from teachers to help build my confidence, but I also needed to be challenged so that I would always try to make my work better.

What would you describe as your greatest accomplishment in life so far?

Publishing my first book is definitely up there!

What are your hopes for the future of your career?

I just want to write more books and see them go out into the world. I’m working on another novel now that developed from a short story I started years ago. I’m starting to see it come together as a book, and I’m looking forward to getting it to a place where it’s ready to share with others.

What do you have to say to all the writers, artists, and dreamers out there still drowning in “no”s?

Sometimes (often?) “no”s have little to do with you and your work. The only thing you can do is keep working to make sure your writing is the best it can be for those rare moments when the factors align for you.

You never know when something good is going to happen, but it can’t happen if you don’t keep creating and sending your work out into the world.

 

Rebecca Entel’s Rejection Survival Skills

Here are some Rejection Survival Skills Rebecca used:

• Maintaining a steady level of hope by keeping the submissions rolling: “It helps me to know things are out there, that I might hear some good news at any moment…” More strategies for surviving the wait for a response to your submission here, and more on the benefits of hope as a coping mechanism here.
• Focusing on the craft and separating the process of creating from the process of finding an audience: “Publishing is a separate world from writing.” (See also under Creative Resilience Manifesto item #1, “I create because creation is an act of love”)
• Putting negative feedback in perspective: “Negative feedback on one piece can feel like a final verdict on whether you have any talent. It’s not.” More on coping with criticism here.
• Giving her self-doubt demons their say and then showing them the door: “Whenever I’m working on something, I’m going to go through several stages in which I think it’s the absolutely worst thing I’ve ever done. I have to remind myself that I always feel that way…” More on coping with self-doubt demons here.
• Focusing on her own journey: “I try to remember that I don’t know the whole story – I can’t necessarily see the path that led a particular author to what seems like a great situation now. Maybe my path to publication looks really smooth and enviable to others, too; they don’t know all the ups and downs that brought me there.” More on coping with jealousy here.

 

Many, many thanks to Rebecca for sharing her experiences with us! You can connect with Rebecca online on her website: rebeccaentel.com, Twitter at @RebeccaEntel, her Facebook page here, or Instagram here.