The more rejections I received ultimately also led to more publications and acceptances to things like residencies and fellowships. It blew my mind ever since then, I've tried to keep with this perspective because I love how much it encourages just putting yourself and your work out there without being attached to any particular outcome. With each submission to whatever it is, it being more about the process and just trusting that your work and the opportunities will come when they're meant to
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 0:57
One night, when I couldn't sleep, I tiptoed into the kitchen in the dark, filling a glass with water before almost dropping it through the window above the sink, a Deer's watery gaze stared back at me. I could feel its animal heat so close to me. Behind that flimsy window screen, we looked at each other for longer than I'd ever looked at another animal. Human or not, I felt a sense of recognition I hadn't yet felt with any human in my life
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcast · 2:11
And at some point it will click and we'll get it. So that's just absolutely wonderful. Thank you for the inspiration of today and thank you for sharing your work. Have a great one
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 3:23
So maybe the publisher said something personal about my work and how they liked it, but it just wasn't a good fit, or they encouraged me to submit something else or submit again. And there's something so motivating about scrolling through that spreadsheet with the hundreds of submissions and just seeing from the color coding how those positive personal rejections just increase in number
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcast · 4:33
And obviously you want to get a success, but you keep going till you get 100 rejections or something like that, right? I should read that article that you posted, which I didn't. Of course not. But, yeah, let me know. And I'm loving this concept. It just depends on, like with writing. You could write for a magazine article. You could write short stories. You could write novels
Dewuan .
@FryedOreo · 4:17
And, yeah, it's amazing how much us as humans will outright avoid doing what we love. Customers fear that it might not go well, or people might say, no. That word. No, it's powerful. It's powerful. But that's not always a bad thing
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 0:47
And I know it was a little while since this swell happened. So really curious to hear any more thoughts or things that you've thought about and reduction in the meantime. So let's just keep talking about it and maybe even do a podcast episode
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 3:17
And I know for me I'm definitely coming out of a period of stepping back and really needing to slow down and question what is most important to me and how I feel about publishing or having work out there at all and what is most important to me about it, because the thing is with publishing or getting into shows and having your work out there, we really are only so much in control. All we can do is show up
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 3:37
Hey, Dewuan, I loved hearing your enthusiasm here and all of the great examples of people in all different industries, you know, tech, sports and even been like you as a podcaster. And what success, the relationship between success and failure. And there is something really radical and cool when you have the flexibility. I think mentally to reframe success as just always getting better and always being open to new challenges and growth rather than in your case, how many listeners?
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcast · 3:51
I haven't been working on the podcast every day, and I'm just a little behind on it. That's why I haven't edited our book club yet. That's part of I think today's plan is to do that. But, yeah, let's talk on it. Maybe we can start as well about our failures and our rejections and not just about writing, but in life
Dewuan .
@FryedOreo · 3:01
In a way, I'm playing out a constant, not constant, but a decent amount of messages with women. And you just play the numbers game. You're going to fail a lot more than you succeed. I just got to be sure that it's authentic, and it's something I really want to say versus being half Ahmed about it and not putting any effort into it. And it will haunt me for the rest of my life because that's what will happen
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcast · 3:00
If someone Tags you, I wish there's a spot for everywhere you've been tagged like, a tagged thing. But anyway, so I find it very interesting that you take that as a failure. And I can see that. But there are people who were on Swell, and they're just kind of like, well, there's nothing here. I think it's because if someone doesn't respond, you just become like, well, nobody likes what I'm posting
Dewuan .
@FryedOreo · 4:56
You can see other people. They post the same time in the day as you, yet they're getting a tons of engagement while you post it at the same time, and you're not getting any engagement. So if enough of that happens, some people will leave. Like you said, some people will leave. But for me, it's almost more of a motivation to keep doing it