Abolishing rejection

At the age of 23, I experienced a traumatic incident.  Many years later, I was aware that I hadn’t really recovered from it and decided to seek help.  I was surprised to discovered that there was a counsellor who specialised in helping people who’d experienced the exact same trauma as me.  Who knew?

Anyhow, at our first meeting, this guy asked me talk him through my experience.  He interrupted me almost immediately to explain that the term I was using to name my experience was toxic, negative and damaging.  He told me that removing that word from my thoughts and conversations about the incident would be the first step in recovering.   While I didn’t give his assertion much credence at the time, I figured he was the expert and that I should give it a try.  Funny thing, he was absolutely right.  Not only that, the affect was immediate so I never used that term again.

Now I’m not here to teach grandma how to suck eggs (definition), however, considering we’re writers and therefore supposed to be handy with words, why are we using ’rejection’ to describe someone’s response to our work? 

Here’s the Oxford on-line dictionary definition:  “Reject: dismiss as inadequate or faulty.”   Not only is the term unflattering and demoralising, it implies that the work is fatally flawed.  

I think we can do a whole lot better than rejection.

I propose that from this day forth we terminate our involvment with the word rejection and replace it with decline.   Decline: to politely refuse (Oxford on-line) is a more accurate appraisal of the situation and leaves us with enough dignity to continue our quest for publication.

All those in favor say “aye”.