13209: How Legendary Authors Deal With The Rejection We Never Hear About

Raw transcript:

I want to talk to you a little bit today
about something that we don’t have the
privilege of getting and that is a
rejection
slip we get rejected all the time we
never get informed of that fact we never
get told why I want to talk to you about
how writers how authors who I’m now
working with to do their audio books
have dealt with rejection slips over the
years we’re going to hear some from from
some very famous ones so stand by in
this episode of the vo Heroes
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podcast so this is just kind of like a
moment for me to be able to read to you
some some quotes from some very famous
authors about rejection and rejection
slips in general even though we as
Talent both on camera voiceover stage we
never get rejection slips we just don’t
hear from the audition
in the future they went on and they cast
somebody else they got stuff to do right
we don’t ever get a formal letter like
somebody who’s applying for a job gets
and they get rejected you know thank you
so much for your interview time we went
in a different direction we hope you’ll
keep us in mind blah blah blah blah blah
no that doesn’t happen to us right so
here are some authors and what they’ve
said about rejection slips Sylvia Plath
said I love my rejection slips they show
me I
try Harper Lee who you know you know uh
um attakus Finch is one of my favorite
characters in all uh of literature uh
Scout gem uh even bu Radley anyway he
she said she said I would advise anyone
who aspires to a writing career that
before developing his talent he would be
wise to develop a thick hide
and that’s kind of cool because it
doesn’t even talk about rejection slips
it talks about the moment of rejection
or the ignorance or the no thank you but
no you know it’s like develop that thick
hide like it’s not it’s not you it’s
them that’s one of the ways to handle
this Neil Gaiman who narrates his own
books who I love remember when people
tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t
work for them they are almost always
right when they tell you exactly what
they think is wrong and how to fix it
they are almost always
wrong and this kind of falls into the
category not of people who reject you
who just don’t talk to you after they
don’t book you for something but they
want to help you get better they want to
give you feedback and you don’t want
feedback from you know a casting
director on what you did wrong or what
you did right that’s not their job
they’re not your teachers they’re not
your
coaches they’re they’re just trying to
you know put somebody into a part that
fits yeah uh Saul Bellow said I
discovered that rejections are not
altogether a bad thing they teach a
writer to rely on his own judgment and
to say in his heart of hearts to hell
with you I love that I love that now if
that’s what helps you maintain your
mental health well the hell with those
people over at that show that I wanted
to be on or that movie that I wanted to
be in or in that commercial or that
audio book that I wanted to to voice you
know Isaac azimov
you must keep sending work out you must
never let a manuscript do nothing but
eat its head off in a drawer you send
that work out again and again while
you’re working on another one if you
have talent you will receive some
measure of success but only if you
persist now we don’t send pieces of work
out time and again we do work for other
people but keep doing it that’s the
point here don’t let some somebody
else’s lack of a fit cuz that’s kind of
what it is don’t let their lack of a fit
stop you from keeping on keeping on and
auditioning for more people Stephen King
by the time I was 14 The Nail in my wall
would no longer support the weight of
the rejection slips impaled upon it I
replaced the nail with a spike and went
on writing he can’t even do quotes about
rejection without injecting horror into
it right spikes and nails and weight and
the nail and replace the nail with a
spike um you know you’re going to have
far more rejections if you still want to
insist on looking at it that way
declines
declinations then you will acceptances
unless you get to the point where you’re
fending off offers great for you but for
the vast preponderance of voice Talent
and actors that I work with as a coach
they don’t get the job you know my buddy
Michael costra you’re not getting the
job uh Jack Canfield who wrote the uh uh
Chicken Soup for the Soul series and
also is a writing coach I encourage you
to reject rejection if someone says no
just say
next and that’s the sum and substance of
what we do as artists we just move on to
the next thing uh in another one of
these episodes I’m going to talk about
the notion of having a bunch of
auditions out as though you’ve sent them
out to the world and you’re monitoring
their their uh their progress and anyway
we’ll talk more about how not to do that
Maya Angelou said for every
accomplishment there were 20 rejections
in the end though only one attitude
enabled me to move ahead that attitude
ude said rejection can simply mean
redirection so what a poetic way to put
this and you know good for you Maya only
20 rejections for every yes wow how many
of us would would trade limbs for that
kind of ratio
yeah finally uh Chuck wendig who I
wasn’t familiar with until I read this
quote and and now I love Chuck wending
rejection has value it teaches us when
our work or our skill set is not good
enough and must be made better rejection
refines us those who fall prey to its
innervating soul sucking tentacles are
doomed those who persist past it are
survivors best ask yourself the question
what kind of writer are you the kind who
survives or the kind who gets
asphyxiated by the tentacle
of Woe and you can take the word writer
out of that and put in actor you know
are you going to be able to survive the
ignoring that you will experience nobody
calls you up and says yeah no they just
don’t call right and that’s in some ways
even worse in some ways it’s better
because you don’t have to face that
physical you know uh moment of Rejection
it just didn’t happen but that’s okay
you can move on to other things and
that’s what I urge that you do has any
of this helped for
you or have I brought up something that
you just don’t want to deal with let me
know in the comments below I’d really
appreciate that hit the like
button if you like what you heard uh you
can subscribe to the channel there’s a
notification Bell somewhere that you can
ring and you’ll be notified when the
next episode comes out and don’t worry
about rejection please you got more
coming down the pike for you so many
good things I’m David H Lawrence the
17th I thank you so much for watching
and for listening and I will see you in
the next episode of The V Heroes podcast
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(from YouTube)