Salaam Reader,

A few years ago, I wrote a story, revised it many times, and then I started sending it out to magazines for publication. I felt like it was a strong story. But it kept getting rejected.

Every time a rejection came back, I told myself I just needed to be patient, that the story hadn’t found the right editor yet, and kept sending it out to more places.

After I amassed about 30 rejections, I had to face the possibility that something might not be working. It meant that perhaps I wasn’t done with revisions after all. I needed to figure out why the story kept getting rejected and what it was about the story that wasn’t landing with readers.

Revision challenges us to look at our work from the eyes of a reader. And it can be painful to realize that a reader can’t see what we’re seeing in our work because it isn’t actually there.

When I’m helping writers revise their stories, I ask them questions about why they wrote the story and the meaning behind it. Very often, the thing that they’re telling me they want a reader to take away from their story is missing on the page.

It was the same problem with my story. I kept convincing myself that the story was strong, that an editor would eventually come along and say, ‘I love this story. I want to publish it.’ But that didn’t happen.

As much as I felt like ‘ugh I can't believe this isn't done yet,’ I got back to work.

I ended up rewriting the story from a different point of view and changed the ending. When I started sending it out again, I felt so much more confident about the story. And Alhamdulillah, the new version of that story did get accepted for publication.

Here’s what that experience taught me: What if we view a rejection, not just as a rejection, but as an invitation to return to a story, to dive deeper into it?

A rejection can be a nudge to return to our work, to reevaluate how effective we are in saying what we want to say.

That experience taught me so much about what revision really means and how to write a story that resonates emotionally with readers. Alhamdulillah, since then, I’ve gotten many more stories published.

If you continue to accumulate rejections on a story, don’t give up on it. Dig deeper to find the heart of it. If you're struggling to see where your stories need work and could use some help in revising your stories, I have a revision course inside my Grounded Writers membership. The course content is applicable to picture books, short stories, as well as creative nonfiction or personal essays. For a limited time, I’m offering it as a one-off course for $330 CAD. It includes a 60-page pdf, an appendix that includes sample first & final drafts for a short story and a picture book. Here's the link to purchase the course. If you have any questions about it, please hit reply and let me know.

I hope this perspective on rejection helped you. I'm cheering for you and your stories as you send them out!

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With best wishes for your writing,

Hajera Khaja Writer + Creative Writing Teacher & Coach

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