Counting Stars

I never counted my rejections.

J.K. Rowling got rejected twelve times. That seemed like so many when I first heard it.
Louis L’Amour rejected 200 times.
Margaret Mitchell 38 times.
The Time Traveler’s Wife, my favorite book, was rejected by 25 agents.
The Help…60.
The Notebook…24.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance…121.

I never counted.

I never wanted to know if I passed those thresholds. I never wanted to ask myself, “Have you been rejected more times than Audrey Niffenegger, yet?” I didn’t want to know the answer.

Some of those numbers, if not all, I’m quite sure I can beat.

Friday nights seemed like prime time for rejections. Whenever my email would chime on a Friday night, I knew the news wasn’t good.

But my drive to write and create has always been far stronger than my pursuit of traditional success. I saved my emotional investment for my characters and their stories, rather than my own publishing journey.

Don’t count the rejections.
Count the stories.
Count the ideas.
Count the paintings.
Count the creations.

Don’t count the rejections because the rejections don’t count.