There's another discussion currently underway about rejections. I don't mean to criticize its originator; far from it, I think his attitude is healthy and he'll handle the inevitable future rejections well. My question covers writers in general:

Why do we savor our rejections?

Only writers keep files of rejection slips and letters. Every other profession moves on. I was trained as a classical musician, and used to periodically travel to out of town auditions. I don't keep the plane tickets of the auditions I lost. (Which would be all of them.) I learned what I could from the experience, and left it behind. (Out of town auditions involve flying, possibly cross-country, on your own dime to potentially sit in a room with over a hundred other competitors so you can play a five-minute audition, at the end of which the overwhelming majority of particpants will will be told to their faces, "Thank you. Next." That's rejection.)

Why do writers alone have such a fascination with rejection?

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I agree completely with all of that, honestly I do.
I just never saved anything--I learned a lot though!
I mean I'd never send out (now) what I sent out ten years ago.
i learned enough to know that the rejections were quite right.
Maybe it's the early ones I didn't save--maybe once I'm more certain of my work--and it's rejected--perhaps those I'd think about saving.
Of course it's a learning thing and we learn from what we go through.
and there's much to learn.
nothing I say is in concrete. I wouldn't have an open mind if that was so--so I'll reconsider my dogmatism and see what I should do.
that's as honest as I can be.
Okay, I'm having a re-think here!
Just wanted to say that for what it's worth!
Hmm.
Look I think it's best to write just because you love writing and being fatalistic about it (rat's ass and so on)!
i just never thought about saving them really--it hadn't occured to me.
this is the only forum I've been on--wherein I've heard and read what so many people say. I just had me before that. so it's good for me to see what others do, a good learning experience.
I probably will be afraid to throw out rejection slips now though!
I'll have to see. (gulp)!
Maybe writing is different because it's solitary and we're desperate for some kind of communication with the outside world, some connection. Also, a rejection slip is still a marker of some success - the finished and sent out story/novel. As most stories and novels never even get finished, it's something.

Also, as Ingrid said, there's a little hope in going from form letter, to note scawled on form letter to personalized rejection.

I miss the paper when I get email rejections for stories from webzines. I also miss the weeks of waiting, to be totally honest. Last year I had a short story rejected the same day I emailed to the webzine. Now, I really appreciate the speed they got back to me, but I did miss feeling for a few weeks that I might have a story accepted.
Wow, I have a long journey ahead of me. I intend to save my first rejection (received yesterday) because it marks the milestone of the first reply to my writing from a publisher. It will not serve any bookkeeping purpose because other than the letterhead; it contains no information. I really look forward to the day when a rejection shows some evidence of human intervention. The only disconcerting feature of this rejection was the actual letter itself. It was obviously a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy, et cetera, to the point that the letterhead and all of the text was fuzzy and no longer close to being centered in the margins.

I found this to be unprofessional, unbusinesslike, and therefore rude.

Rant finished.

I guess I'd better get back to work to crank out a couple score more stories, striving for those wonderful sounding personal touches on the rejections.
Because I plan to wallpaper my bathroom with them one day.
don't know if this is for me, but I'll respond by saying that's a great idea!
maybe I'll do that too!
A mother looks at her newborn child for the first time and sees beauty, everyone else sees a misshapen gargantuan head, squashed nose etc... I think it may be the same with writing, we give birth to an idea and it's ours alone. I've auditioned before (theatre), but I was always performing something that someone else had given birth to. As a performer you are the parrott, as a writer you tell the parrott what to say. Also, a performance can vary. When we write it's assumed we've had time to perfect, we write and rewrite. When you perform, it's normally a one shot deal, and if your having a bad day - - too bad, plus you can't really take your crappy performance with you. With writing there is evidence.
Parrot...see worried about rejection even now.
I had to stop saving them because I ran out of room . . . but it definitely is something that most writers do. In a strange way it helps — especially when we're unpublished — to believe in ourselves as writers. It's a legacy that shows we're creating stories and sending them out and one day, instead of rejection, we'll actually receive that all-important acceptance that says we never gave up.
Just commenting here, yes. It's a documentation of our progress.
I agree now.

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