Everyone Gets Rejected

One of the hardest things to understand and prepare for in the world of creating content is the certainty -- not the probability, but the certainty -- that your work will be rejected at some time or other. That happens not only to people starting out but also to established artists at the top of their game. I've read interviews with some top producers who say they still pitch ten ideas to networks for every idea that gets accepted. That's a great percentage in the world of television -- it's not uncommon for some producers to pitch a lot more ideas before one gets accepted. Rejection is the norm; acceptance of your idea is the outlier. And while many people understand that fact intellectually before they begin creating content, it's a very different situation when the work you spent years developing gets rejected with only a cursory read, or sometimes no read or all. How can you deal with that and continue to sustain your efforts? First, it helps to know you have a lot of company. Read Stephen King's book on writing -- before he became one of America's best selling authors he was barely supporting his family in a small apartment in Bangor, Maine. It's well known that JK Rowling was living on the dole in the UK when she wrote the first Harry Potter book. All the networks rejected Survivor, until Mark Burnett had the chance to re-pitch the idea to the head of CBS. Every record company except one rejected the Beatles music. They didn't give up, and neither should you. Second, it helps to think of your work as something that will find an audience, even if it hasn't yet found one. The rejections aren't the end of the creative process, they're part of the process. Expect rejections, and when you get one acknowledge it and move on. If you get constructive feedback, try to incorporate it in your work. Third, work on multiple projects. If one gets rejected, you still have others to create. That keeps you from putting all your energy in one creative basket. Hal Prince, the Broadway producer, said he always scheduled a meeting on the next show for the day after the reviews came out for his current show. If the reviews were good, they had a new show to develop. And if the reviews were bad, they had a new show to develop. Even if you want to spend most of your time on your new novel, make sure you spend a little time outlining your next story. That's a good thing to have ready in case a network or publisher asks, "What else do you have?" Finally, consider ignoring the gatekeepers and going straight to the audience. The internet has made it relatively easy to self-publish books, post videos, poetry, music, etc. It's possible that a network or publisher will discover you from your internet post. In previous posts I provided examples of viral content that made its creators famous; you probably know some, too. However, understand that if you are self-publishing on the web, you need a plan to market your material, or it will drown in the sea of content already available. You work will be rejected, and it will feel like you were personally rejected. It's your ability to overcome rejection and continue to create that will determine your ultimate success.

Creating Lin-sane content

If you had submitted a script about the Jeremy Lin story before the last two weeks, I guarantee you that every publisher and movie company would tell you it could never happen. For those anthropologists in the future who are reading this to learn about early 21st century culture, I'll recap. Lin, a Harvard graduate, is the first Asian-American to play in the NBA. He languished at the end of the bench of a couple of teams before the New York Knicks picked him up in December, 2011 to sit on the end of their bench. Injuries to Knick guards forced the team to play Lin, and in his first eight starts he scored more points than any point guard in NBA history in their first 8 starts. The Knicks, who despite having two of the highest paid players on their team, won 7 of 8 games where Lin played, and now have a winning record for the season. Jeremy Lin is more than a basketball story -- he's been covered by the major news organizations, magazines, blogs and you tube. Mark Twain once said, "Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction is obligated to stick to possibilities; truth isn't." It's true that the stories we create need to establish a plausible reality for our readers. In addition to that, a successful story will connect with our readers or viewers. That's why the Jeremy Lin story is so popular. Who doesn't feel unjustly neglected at some time? Many times we feel that we're on the end of the bench at work, or in life. We believe that we can become stars like Lin, when we get the chance. Jeremy Lin's story resonates because it taps into this universal yearning for a chance to shine. Lin-sanity is also a positive story. Jeremy Lin is a nice young man, who gives his faith and his teammates credit for his success. Most people prefer a positive story to a negative story. We want to believe that hard work will be rewarded, that good behavior is rewarded, and happy endings are real. Even in a horror story, where the monster kills a lot of characters, our hero eventually kills the monster. If the stories you create end happily, you have a much better chance of their being popular. So to create Lin-sane content, follow these three principles: 1. Tap into your audience's deepest desires 2. Stay positive 3. Stay original -- tell us a story we haven't heard before.