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Hitting 100 rejections on my writing submissions finally made me feel like a real writer
I submitted short stories to literary magazines for about 18 months and kept a spreadsheet of every single rejection. When I hit number 100 last week, I actually felt proud instead of defeated. Each rejection came with a timestamp, the magazine name, and sometimes a personal note like 'close but not quite.' That number mattered because it proved I was actually doing the work and not just talking about writing. Most people quit after 10 or 20 rejections, but 100 showed I had real grit for this stupid hobby. It also helped me spot patterns in what editors were actually looking for versus what I thought they wanted. Has anyone else tracked a specific milestone that flipped how you saw your progress?
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tyler_wilson21d ago
Yeah @rowan_roberts49 that King story always gets brought up but 100 rejections is its own kind of badge of honor. Keep that spreadsheet going and start tracking what actually gets more specific feedback - thats been way more useful for me than the raw number.
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