Writers are faced with failure and rejection at every turn -- whether it's an ill-timed pitch, or a missed deadline that results in a bumped article -- not all failure is of their own making, but it still hurts.
Sure, rejection is part and parcel of the job in my professional life. If an editor/publisher is not interested in paying for my work, I find that easy to accept. There's always someone else who may be. So, there's the promise that it may really be "suited for another publication." One can do more than hope: a writer can repackage the piece and send it out again.
Twitter rejection, I've discovered, is another type of rejection all together. It seems somehow more personal. Followers are fickle. One day you have two followers - your mom and a close acquaintance -- next it's up to seven followers, none of whom you know personally. Then, before you know it, you post one comment about a hockey player and the numbers JUMP by the threes. Within hours, the excitement wanes, you've been dumped by the fives when the next post comments on an Oprah segment in 103 characters. Hypothetically speaking, of course.
I suppose, I really ought to just turn off the notification feature and be done with, but the truth is it's exciting to learn that someone liked something you posted enough to expect that you may post something interesting again.
Like writers who consistently face rejection, readers have to put up with disappointment, too.
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