There is something that writers must do that is as challenging as writing itself, in its own way, and that is putting your work out there over and over, even when it's rejected. I have been writing for years now and have many pieces, and I write weekly here for Odyssey, but one area of writing I am relatively new to is sending my stories to literary magazines for publication.

Writing is one thing, spending endless hours creating and revising by yourself. It's comfortable and easy writing a piece to your own satisfaction. But then there is a risk when you finally decide to send out your piece. You edit it just right, make sure all of the formatting is perfect. Then you find the perfect literary magazine that will fit your piece just right. Finally, you compose a cover letter and submit your story.

First releasing your story is an accomplishment. It feels good knowing you completed it and it's submitted. But then you have to wait weeks or months to hear if it was accepted or not. Doubts go through your head more than once if you phrased everything right in the letter or if your story was edited perfectly, or even if it was good enough. But there is no changing it, no going back now, all there is hope that they enjoy the story, understand it, relate to it, and want to publish it.

So much is out of your control as you wait and hope. Editors have their own likes and styles. Just because they do not accept a story doesn't mean it's not a good story; it might just not be their type. Still, it's hard, and you wonder if they didn't accept you because something wasn't as good as it could be with the story or if it was just their personal preference.

And when your story isn't accepted it's hard to want to submit it again and again, how long will it take until someone does accept it? These are challenges that every writer has to learn to deal with when starting out and I don't think it's talked about enough, the long, hard effort of submitting your work over and over.

Even with rejections, I had to just take that frustration and submit it again to another magazine. I reminded myself that even the best writers faced many rejections, but in the end, it is worth it, for that hard-earned publication, for that moment your story finds its home and is printed and officially shared with the world.

Writers must learn to get back up over and over after every challenge both in the writing and publishing process. To not get discouraged and give up but let the challenge motivate you to try harder and submit again. I'm learning to do that myself. After every rejection, submit again and just keep doing it until you receive that letter saying your story was accepted. Until then and even after just keep submitting and submitting all those beautiful pieces you worked hard to write.