The Clothesline is written by a real person: Me! I’m Vanessa Chiasson, a writer and business coach based in Ottawa, Canada. I write travel and human interest narratives primarily for North American print and online outlets and I love reading, birds, beach glass, lattes, and nachos. I’m scared of roosters, dislike olives, and I cannot wink. You can check out my coaching services here and follow me on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Ink & Income is ready for you! Are you ready for it?
I just sent my first end-of-week reflection email to the members of the Ink & Income community. In it, I ask them how they’ve felt about the words they’ve written this week, I inquire if they’re happy with the pitches they’ve sent out, and I challenge them to ponder all the good and bad things the week has brought.
Weekly reflection emails are just one measure of external accountability members of the community enjoy (or maybe they don’t enjoy it, per se… accountability isn’t always fun even if it IS necessary!) This membership-based community offers three virtual coworking sessions a month, a monthly group coaching call, and free access to my quarterly planning days.
You can join and leave at any time. Membership costs about $49 a month (less if you pay annually) and right now you can save an additional 25% off as a founding member. That makes it about $36! I’d love to see you in the group and help you on your quest to make 2024 your most profitable writing year ever.
Small business friends: The second cohort of Illuminate Your Biz has just launched!
Are you a small business owner struggling to get more visibility and grow your business? The Illuminate Your Biz course is perfect for you. This six week program includes video lessons, homework, a workbook, templates, and three live Q&A calls. The summer cohort starts on July 15 and we’d love to see you there!
Food for Thought
Today, I got a rejection letter.
This isn’t exactly breaking news, is it? I’m a writer. As such, I must pitch my writing to outlets which will publish it (and pay me). I must also apply for grants, pursue funding, and chase opportunities. Not everyone is going to say yes. I know this. I understand this. In fact, I coach others to embrace it. You have to take your chances in this uncertain world! You must put yourself out there for the sake of your art! You. Must. PERSIST.
The truth of the matter is that it sucks.
I also got an acceptance letter today. It was from a kind editor saying yes to a story I’ve been trying to place for a year, a story I’m really excited about. Yesterday, I had another acceptance from a different editor, who made room for me just so I could place a short story about something I loved so much it made me squeal with delight when I first learned about it. And on Wednesday, another editor said yes to me, and said it so enthusiastically that they typed with ALL CAPS that they couldn’t wait to read my draft.
It has been a banner week for acceptances, really. So why am I feeling this one rejection so keenly?
Sensible people would say that it’s because of negativity bias. According to TheDecisionLab.com, “Negativity bias is a cognitive bias that results in adverse events having a more significant impact on our psychological state than positive events. Negativity bias occurs even when adverse events and positive events are of the same magnitude, meaning we feel negative events more intensely.”
Not so sensible people (ie, me) think this is perfectly reasonable to the rest of the world but for us writers, the sting of rejection is especially painful. I think it lies in the fact that, in order to be good writers, we must put so much of ourselves out there. We know that good writing comes from stories and situations that we deeply care about and thus we put a tiny bit of heart out there every time we send our fragile pitch out into the world. Do it enough times, carve out enough pieces of your heart, and you really feel like you’re starting to bleed. But how do we staunch the flow without entirely isolating ourselves from future injury? I’m not sure I have the answer to that.
I try to stay relentlessly positive about the writing and rejection cycle but sometimes you just need to feel all the feels. If you are suffering with rejection heartbreak this week, I hope you have a furry friend to offer consolation. I hope you can find comfort. I hope you don’t beat yourself up for feeling disappointed or disheartened. Know that I’m rooting for you and I’m also wallowing with you. We don’t have to be sensible and understanding of negativity bias. We can just BE whatever we need to be right now.
Write on, dear friends.
Vanessa