Light the cigars, open the champagne, we’re celebrating rejections.

This month I toasted a rejection email with a glass of champagne. ‘Well done’ and ‘rejection’ don’t ordinarily go together, but what if they did? Or more importantly, should go together, and we’ve just been misunderstanding rejection this whole time?

A few years ago, I was advised to aim for at least 100 rejections a year. Sadistic as this may sound, it was about setting myself up for a year of trying, of putting myself out there and picking myself up, repeatedly. As a writer, I’d never viewed submissions in this way, but I found the shift in perspective nothing less than a huge and welcome relief.

At last, liberated from waiting endless months for a painstaking close-but-no-cigar rejection, I could instead keep looking ahead, aiming for that next rejection, knowing that each one would get me closer to my goal. Rejection has allowed me to be better. See more clearly what’s not working and what is. By focusing on submitting regularly, and more than ever before, I found myself consistently editing and improving my writing. When a rejection letter came in 3-6 months after I’d submitted, I no longer took it so hard and often agreed with the decision, having improved the writing since submitting. Not all publishing folk have the time to respond with detailed feedback on your submission, but any rejection can still be a learning experience. Sophie Mackintosh, author of, The Water Cure, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, wrote an article about the important, and positive, role that rejection plays in any creative process.

Most recently, I was rejected (no need to applaud) in a way that I hadn’t been before. Rather than the classic ‘Declined’, it was instead marked as ‘Completed’. If accepting, nay embracing, rejection was to be summed up as one sentiment, I think that would be it.

So, don’t let your hang-ups around rejection steal your achievements, because writing when no one asked to write, submitting when no one has heard of you, and keeping going when it would be much easier not to, are all achievements worth celebrating.