Ray Bradbury famously wrote a story a week. It was impossible, he insisted, to write 52 bad stories in a row.

Bradbury is one of my writing heroes, so this is an approach I admire and strive to emulate. So when I found a quote from Bradbury on Pinterest offering some advice about submissions and getting published, I paid attention.

As it happens, I can’t find any other source to corroborate that Bradbury ever gave the advice I stumbled across. But I’m sharing it just the same, because I think the heart of the directive remains true, if a little out-of-the-box:

“Pick a room in your house and paper it with rejection slips. By the time you’ve papered it,
you’ll have gotten published. And, actually, it won’t take the whole room.”

Even if Bradbury never said, I understand where the association came from. At the heart of this advice is the same core truth that is at the heart of many Bradbury writing quotes: the message that success in writing is merely inevitable—if you keep at it long enough.

But quotes can feel simplistic and even trite–allow me to break it down into five simple steps:

1. Write a story.

Since under the Ray Bradbury approach we write a story every week, we should be able to find one somewhere. Pick up one of your favorites, dust it off, and give it a nice edit. Or, write a new one!

2. Pick a room.

Pick a room, any room. Preferably a large one, in need of a makeover.

3. Submit.

Submit your story over and over and over. Submit to as many appropriate publications as you can find. Submit just for submissions’ sake. Because when you submit, you get something truly exciting: Rejection letters!

4. Apply rejection letters to previously selected room.

Here is where we take action toward our goal: Use the rejection letters to re-paper the walls of your chosen room. As you can see, it’s critical that we continue to submit our stories to more and more publications, even as rejection letters come in, so we can finish redecorating the room.

5. Revel at your story in print.

At some point, your story will find the its way to just the right editor. When you keep working and submitting, and don’t give up, it’s just inevitable. Ray Bradbury himself says so. Or at least someone out there thought he did.

This message of persistence isn’t exactly a new one, but I love this approach to it.

By providing an alternate goal, this process takes some of your focus off the negative results (the rejections) and puts a positive spin on it … and reminds us that those rejections are simply an inevitable part of the journey.

So hang in there! Success it right around the corner. But even if it takes you a while to get there, at least you’ll have a very nice looking publishing-themed room to enjoy.

What publications can you get rejection letters from?