Dealing With Rejection as a Creative
What no one really says about rejection on the creator's journey
Picture this: you spend several weeks working on your pitch for that big project. You tailor every creative effort to align with the brief, refine your ideas and concept until it feels like solid work. You rehearse your pitch and look it over several times. You send it, and then you wait.
You finally get feedback, and it goes something like:
We’ve decided to explore another option. Thanks for your time.
Or maybe it is an audition you prepared tirelessly for and lost sleep over. You felt like you gave it your best shot. Then you waited for a call that never came.
If you are a working creative, you have had experiences like these in different shapes and forms. And somehow, some of these experiences stay with you long enough to influence parts of your creative journey.
But here’s the truth: Getting rejected does not have to interrupt your creative career. Although facing rejection is inherently part of the creative (and life) journey, many aren’t always prepared to face it and know how to effectively keep going afterwards.
So, let’s try to put rejection in perspective.
Why does rejection tend to be such a big deal for creatives?
Creative or not, rejection is not the easiest thing for anyone to deal with. However, in creative fields and industries, it often carries a different weight because a person’s creative work is often seen as an extension of themselves. It is a piece of their thinking, person, vision and voice. So when a creator’s work is rejected, it is not merely their work that is rejected; it feels like a part of their person has also been turned down.
When we add to this the fact that rejection of creative work is not always objectively explained, it further complicates matters. You didn’t land the deal or get called back from the auditioners, but you don’t know for certain why that happened or what went wrong; after all, you gave it your best. This leaves the creator with much room to draw conclusions.
What’s rejection, really?
Rejection is hardly a verdict on talent or your person. Many times, it is context-specific. Your work was reviewed by a specific set of people with a specific brief and budget, histories, preferences and aesthetics. Change a few variables, and you might just get a different result.
An objectively excellent written piece may be an ill-fit for a publication’s editorial direction. Your exhilarating performance might have carried the “wrong” energy for a role that the director had already imagined differently. Essentially, the same piece of work that was declined by one client can be stellar work for another client. Rejection is not reflective of your ability to deliver top-tier creative work. On the other hand, it is sometimes fueled by budget cuts, cancelled or pivoted projects, a change in brief, or maybe the key person who loved your work was moved off the project.
If you notice, none of this is reflective of the quality of the work you have produced, presented or sent out. So, maybe you don’t have to give that much meaning to one single outcome.
Many notable creatives, honestly more than we can count, have faced rejection. J.K Rowling’s manuscript was turned down by twelve publishers. Walt Disney was fired from a job because he “lacked imagination”. Vincent Van Gogh struggled to sell his art and have people see the value in it while he was alive. But in all these instances and many other success stories, they kept building and making things regardless of the outcomes and the resistance they faced. They kept creating because while validation is great, creating meant more than yeses to them. While some are born with a heavy dose of hard-headedness, anyone can learn to express commitment and strong-will in their creative journey. Create, not just because you want the world to see and recognise your gift and skill, but because you need an outlet to express all that is within you. When you cultivate this kind of relationship with your creative process, whatever the market says can’t keep you down for too long.
This doesn’t mean you should shrug off every rejection you face like it never happened. No. Take time to process them in the best way you can. Sit with it for a while, but don’t stay down and stop creating as a result of one (or more) rejections.
And when you are done processing the rejection, what do you do next?
In cases like this, when rejection comes with zero feedback, it is understandable why it is hard to move on; you don’t know what the problem was, nor do you know what to improve. These are a few things to try out whenever you face rejection.
Ask for feedback. While many would not take the time to explain their choices or the reason behind their decision to reject your work, it’s no harm to ask. However, make it brief, ask once and be ready to accept their choice of response. No response counts as a response in this case.
Evaluate your submission with reference to the brief. How well did your work match what the project clearly required? Sometimes your work is rejected not because it is bad, but because you overlooked one little detail, or more, that led to a mismatch between what you delivered and what was expected.
Don’t make permanent decisions from a momentary setback. The momentary setback from a rejection can be painful, and when the pain is deepest is the wrongest time to make permanent decisions. The moment right after experiencing rejection is not the best time to consider quitting your creative journey or pivoting to another industry or creative expression.
Finally, learn to reframe rejection when you receive it. What you say to yourself in those moments matters more than you think. That your work didn’t make the cut doesn’t always mean you suck at your craft (even though there is always room for improvement). That your work was turned down doesn’t mean you will never succeed as a creator in that path. Your work can be the best quality possible and still be turned down for reasons unknown to you—it might even be a budget mismatch—and that is okay. Most importantly, remember that rejections don’t define you, but they are a necessary part of your journey as a creator.