Tell me some Rejection Stories and Success after Rejection stories

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Tell me some Rejection Stories and Success after Rejection stories

    How did You cope with rejection? What was their word/feedback when they rejected You?
    How did You got your screenplay bought after those previous rejections? Stories...

    I'm just curious to know and prepare for the future rejection.

  • #2
    Re: Tell me some Rejection Stories and Success after Rejection stories.

    Originally posted by BrainDestroyer303 View Post
    How did You cope with rejection? What was their word/feedback when they rejected You?
    How did You got your screenplay bought after those previous rejections? Stories...

    I'm just curious to know and prepare for the future rejection.
    You cope with rejection because you have to. There's no feedback. And the word is NO. Pass. Or nothing. You hear nothing. It's an every day occurrence for screenwriters. You will hear no (or pass) almost all the time. It's rare when you get a yes. Or even an offer of a Yes. You either learn to cope with rejection as a writer or you perish.

    This is not even close to an instant gratification business. This is a wait... ok... now wait some more... oh so close.... oops, take 10 steps back... wait more.... wait another 10 years... OH WOW... you wrote a fantastic script??? Congratulations, you're an overnight success!, kind of business.

    Oh.... by the way (and this is an opinion, but based on what I've seen) a yes without getting paid is not a real yes, it's just a delayed No.

    And I sold scripts because the right person at the right time loved what I wrote and wanted to either option or buy it. The way every script sells or is optioned.
    Last edited by EdFury; 12-27-2014, 05:32 PM.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Tell me some Rejection Stories and Success after Rejection stories.

      Agreed with Ed. There really aren't many "rejection stories."

      People read it and never get back to you. Or maybe they sent you a short email and said "not for me, thanks for sending." Or maybe they just saying something to your agent which you never hear about.

      People don't generally give feedback when they reject you. That's not their job. The moment they know it's not for them, they generally stop thinking about it as quickly as possible, since that's energy they could be devoting to finding a project they actually want.

      And I also agree with Ed that it's only really a yes when you're getting paid.

      You cope with it by diving into the next thing. You never stop working to get better. That way, by the time you realize that your phone is never going to ring because of that last thing, you're deeply into the next thing, which is 1000x better anyway.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Tell me some Rejection Stories and Success after Rejection stories.

        This is a job where when they *buy* your script, there are meetings where they tell you all of the things they want to change.

        And no feedback for rejections, only for acceptance.

        How do you cope with rejection? Why would you need to? When nothing happens with a script, you write a new one. You keep doing that forever. It helps to try to figure out what didn't work with the previous script and learn something along the way, but sometimes you are Prince Charming with that glass slipper and it seems like your whole life is big smelly feet. Then, you find the person who fits the shoe.

        Bill
        Free Script Tips:
        http://www.scriptsecrets.net

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Tell me some Rejection Stories and Success after Rejection stories.

          Maybe this qualifies. I was hired to write the sequel to a horror hit. I wrote the script and was really proud of it. Movie gets greenlit after they attach a well-known genre director. Then I get the call - the director is going to toss my script and reinvent the whole thing from scratch himself. Just like that, I'm off the project; my first produced movie gone. A month later, he turns in his script and the studio dislikes it so much that they part ways entirely. So I get the call that they've gone back to my script with a new director. Movie get made, awesome experience on set, and I remain totally proud of it.
          https://twitter.com/DavidCoggeshall
          http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1548597/

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Tell me some Rejection Stories and Success after Rejection stories.

            It took a great deal of time and effort to get my favourite script, a comedy, into the hands of a major Hollywood agent.

            His three word response? "It's not funny."

            My reaction? I laughed.
            TimeStorm & Blurred Vision Book info & blog: https://stormingtime.com//

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Tell me some Rejection Stories and Success after Rejection stories.

              Think of rejection as assistance in identifying where your work might improve, but it's a bit like driving your used car to different dealers to see who wants to buy it - at it's most basic it's a question of taste and market window. I mean, what was I supposed to make of this feedback from 1994: "Somewhere in this confusing mess there could be an interesting story but we didn't find it."
              "Friends make the worst enemies." Frank Underwood

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Tell me some Rejection Stories and Success after Rejection stories.

                Two responses to the same material of mine:

                1. I love the writing but not the story.

                2. I love the story but not the writing.

                IMO, there's not much you can take away from those kinds of subjective responses. If over time you collect a number of responses that point to a same issue, then there might be something to learn from them.

                As far as success after rejection, hell, there are a million stories out there. J.K. Rowling, Stephen King....

                Here are a few from some website somewhere:
                1. John Grisham's first novel was rejected 25 times.
                2. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen (Chicken Soup for the Soul) received 134 rejections.
                3. Beatrix Potter had so much trouble publishing The Tale of Peter Rabbit, she initially had to self-publish it.
                4. Robert Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) received 121 rejections before it was published and went on to become a best seller.
                5. Gertrude Stein spent 22 years submitting before getting a single poem accepted.
                6. Judy Blume, beloved by children everywhere, received rejections for two straight years.
                7. Madeline L'Engle received 26 rejections before getting A Wrinkle in Time published-which went on to win the Newberry Medal and become one of the best-selling children's books of all time.
                8. Frank Herbert's Dune was rejected 20 times before being published and becoming a cult classic.
                9. Stephen King received dozens of rejections for Carrie before it was published (and made into a movie!).*
                10. James Lee Burke's novel The Lost Get-Back Boogie was rejected 111 times over a period of nine years and, upon its publication by Louisiana State University Press in 1986, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
                From another website somewhere else:
                1. Madeline L'Engle's book, A Wrinkle in Time, was turned down 29 times before she found a publisher.
                2. C.S. Lewis received over 800 rejections before he sold a single piece of writing.
                3. Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind was rejected by 25 publishers.
                4. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was rejected 121 times.
                5. Johathan Livingston Seagull was rejected 40 times.
                6. Louis L'Amour was rejected over 200 times before he sold any of his writing.
                7. The San Francisco Examiner turned down Rudyard Kipling's submission in 1889 with the note, "I am sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just do not know how to use the English language.-
                8. An editor once told F. Scott Fitzgerald, "You'd have a decent book if you'd get rid of that Gatsby Character.-
                9. The Dr. Seuss book, And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street, was rejected for being "too different from other juveniles on the market to warrant selling.-
                10. George Orwell's Animal Farm was rejected with the comment, "It's impossible to sell animal stories in the USA.-
                11. The manuscript for The Diary of Anne Frank received the editorial comment, "This girl doesn't, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the curiosity level.-
                And the list goes on.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Tell me some Rejection Stories and Success after Rejection stories.

                  Interesting. Thank you!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Tell me some Rejection Stories and Success after Rejection stories.

                    Originally posted by EdFury View Post
                    You cope with rejection because you have to. There's no feedback. And the word is NO. Pass. Or nothing. You hear nothing.
                    This. When you're actually getting read by executives, you're generally not going to get any feedback. It's just "Not For Us."

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Tell me some Rejection Stories and Success after Rejection stories.

                      My hands-down favorite rejection was from a fairly prominent company. The development exec to whom I sent the script loved it. Over the course of a month, he contacted me several times, sharing his excitement.

                      And then I got a rejection letter. The Development Exec had cc'd every member of his company. It went something like this:

                      "This is an excellent, smart script. Unfortunately, right now we are only buying stupid crap."

                      True story! Didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

                      Late Night Writer

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Tell me some Rejection Stories and Success after Rejection stories.

                        Originally posted by LateNightWriter View Post
                        My hands-down favorite rejection was from a fairly prominent company. The development exec to whom I sent the script loved it. Over the course of a month, he contacted me several times, sharing his excitement.

                        And then I got a rejection letter. The Development Exec had cc'd every member of his company. It went something like this:

                        "This is an excellent, smart script. Unfortunately, right now we are only buying stupid crap."

                        True story! Didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

                        Late Night Writer

                        Thanks for sharing your story, LNW!
                        That line would make a rejection easier to get.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Tell me some Rejection Stories and Success after Rejection stories.

                          Would it though? what was your gut reaction LNW? To realize you'd achieved a measure of success or to aim lower next time? Meet the market?
                          I heard the starting gun


                          sigpic

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Tell me some Rejection Stories and Success after Rejection stories.

                            Actually, Southern Land, what I thought was that the development exec was pissed off that his colleagues weren't as enthusiastic about the script as he was. The rejection letter with all of them cc'd was his way of giving them the finger.



                            I took it in the spirit with which it was intended.

                            Late Night Writer

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Tell me some Rejection Stories and Success after Rejection stories.

                              Originally posted by LateNightWriter View Post
                              Actually, Southern Land, what I thought was that the development exec was pissed off that his colleagues weren't as enthusiastic about the script as he was. The rejection letter with all of them cc'd was his way of giving them the finger.



                              I took it in the spirit with which it was intended.

                              Late Night Writer
                              That response was worth framing. I hope you did just that.

                              Complimentary and yet...so %%@@## depressing.

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X