How do you deal with rejection?
When I was in my twenties, sending off short stories, I dealt with rejection by cursing, weeping, and eating massive amounts of chocolate. It’s odd how powerful rejection can be. We all know we don’t all have the same tastes, yet having a short story rejected made me feel miserable and introverted, and, I don’t know why, it made me feel ugly. I was often incapable of leaving the house for days after a rejection. I could scarcely look the mailman in the eye. But at the same time, I never stopped writing.
Do you have a website? Do you manage it yourself or do you have someone run it for you?
I do have a website: www.nancythayer.com. I also send out a newsletter several times a year, with news about my books, and recipes, jokes, health tips, Nantucket scenes, and of course the occasional photo of my grandchildren. You can sign up for the newsletter on my website. I do the newsletter, but a professional website guru does the website, thank heavens!
How do you deal with a bad review?
Now that I’m older and wiser, I deal with a bad review by cursing and eating massive amounts of chocolate and rereading some of the wonderful affirmative emails I’ve received from readers. I skip the weeping and feeling ugly part. Could it be that as I’ve grown older I’ve actually gotten wiser?
Thank you for this interview, Nancy. Do you have any final words you’d like to share with my readers?
If you’re a writer, you love solitude. But you need comrades. Join a writer’s community. Attend workshops. It will help your writing and keep you sane—well, relatively sane!
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