Ever since 2018, about a year after I first published my debut novel, I fought for myself to get myself more out there.
Whilst waiting for the results of my first published novel, I ended up writing personal articles. Everything from my first ordeals as a victim turning to a fighter to losing my friend to death back in 2011.
At first, I was confident about the results to my articles. I’d thought that they would have potentials to be more out there and I would be given the prospects of becoming more prominent. I then did Google searches for magazines that were looking for submissions.
I did the impetuous thing to submit some of my best articles to their respective submissions.
I waited and waited.
The next thing I knew, I got my submissions rejected.
I’d thought that wouldn’t be a big deal at first, so I kept going. I ended up writing more relevant articles about my personal life. I submitted them… and then I got rejected again.
I repeated the entire process, and the more I did so, I ended up rejected again and again. This happened for the next several years.
As I was looking through my rejected submissions to magazines, I’d at first thought that I wouldn’t have what it takes to become a prominent writer.
But then I learned something from my college mentors/professors.
I learned that being rejected is part of the process of becoming a writer.
Instead of crying and lamenting about my rejected articles…
I accepted it.
I suddenly gained the common sense that this is all part of the creative writing world.
Regardless how well I do in what I do best, I will still have to be criticized by professionals. I still have flaws in my creative process, no matter how best I do in my passion turned to career.
It’s part of life. It’s how it is in this creative society.
After coming into realization on my rejected articles, I moved on from them and persist doing what I do best.
Once I accepted their decisions to reject my best submissions, I moved on and resume writing.
I learned to accept criticism from professionals and I learned to accept formal advices on becoming a writer. I then received formal training from my writing professors. I learned to become an improved writer as the days go by whilst being criticized, regardless how harsh the criticisms were to me. I learned to have thicker skin as I received more criticisms in order to improve myself.
And it all worked out.
As I was looking through my rejected submissions, I learned two things:
I have to know my audience. And I have to know what my audience wants.
I learned to write what is considered compatible and appropriate to my audience. Instead of writing depressing and personal stories about myself, I ended up writing what is considered accommodating to my audience. Even though writing dark themes in my works is my forte, they are not considered appropriate to my audience. I learned to have varieties in my writing styles.
After all that formal training, criticisms, and receiving advices from professional writers, I have improved my writing as the years go by.
I’ve moved on from my past rejections and resume with all the tenacity I have within me.
I learned to embrace my flaws and find the common sense to improve my flaws.
I even learned that I have to take career paths in order to reach to my success. First, college essays. Next, sharpen my skills and seek formal training. Then, get my work out there by doing poetry slams and open mics. Finally, have thicker skin and gain all the audacity I need to get myself more prominent. These are all the necessary steps I need to take in order to reach to my success.
After paving through my career paths, I became one step closer to getting myself more out there as a writer. It may not be right away, albeit it still takes time.
I may not be prominent yet, though someday, by the time I resume repeating my career paths until I have reached to the end of the finishing line, I will soon gain the prospects I will eventually receive. Now is not the time for that; I still want to take the time to improve myself in order to reach to the prospects I earned. Eventually.
Therefore, being rejected from affluent magazines did not make me give up my career as an affluent writer. They have made me improve my creative writing process. I then accepted their decisions to reject my best works and I have moved on and remained tenacious with myself and my passion for writing.
I figured that many potential writers out there are going through the same pathways as I. By the time they read this article, I hope for them that they would understand that this is ubiquitous to the creative writing world of virtuosity. It is not about competition; it is about the learning process of improvement.
I eventually hope that someday, I may share my personal experiences with what I went through as an obscured writer, from the starting line to all the way to the finishing line.
This is part of life. I cannot always get what I want. Neither can anyone else.
Henceforth, my past rejections have made me improved as a writer. Despite all the rejections I went through, I am proud of my own accomplishments. I will persist and persevere to get myself more out there with even thicker skin.
Prominent or obscured… I will always be proud of myself for being here today.
-(C) by Nix Cheng, 2026