This is the long-delayed fourth installment in a series of essays here about how professional or aspiring professional writers can and must cope with two various kinds of rejection — rejection of your work by the buyers and rejection by various folks in the audience. Part 1 can be read here, Part 2 can be read here and Part 3 can be read here.
I may have mistitled this series because, as I'm going to explain in this chapter, a lot of what we think are rejections really aren't rejections. They're more correctly viewed as non-acceptances. Those may seem like the same thing but they're not and understanding why they're not may be vital if you are to keep your career in perspective.
What's the difference? Let's say you and I are going out to dinner and there are three restaurants nearby — an Italian place, a Chinese place and a Deli. I say to you, "What do you feel like?" You say, "I'm kind of in the mood for corned beef…how about the Deli?" I say fine and we go to the Deli. The whole discussion takes ten seconds.
Imagine then that the managers of the Italian and Chinese restaurants are standing outside their respective businesses and they see us drive by, park down the street and go into the Deli. Imagine too that they get upset and start wondering, "Why did they reject my restaurant?"
But we didn't. The managers of the Chinese and Italian restaurants didn't do anything wrong. We just decided that at that particular moment, we didn't want what they offered. That's not exactly a rejection and to the extent it is, it's a rejection that has nothing to do with them.
Writers — and actors, as well — have a tendency to think of every potential hiring opportunity as something they should get. When (as usually happens), they don't get hired, they think of it as a competition they lost for one of two reasons. Either they didn't receive proper consideration or the person doing the selecting wasn't wise enough to see that they were the best choice. These two views are especially prevalent among writers or actors who've never themselves been in a hiring position.
Either view could be correct and in a future installment of this series, I'll have a lot more to say about your work not getting proper consideration. But there's a third reason which is often the case. The person making the decision just had a hunch or a whim. The decision was made quickly because it didn't seem to merit a long discussion…just as you and I don't have to spend an hour weighing all possibilities before we decide where to have dinner.
As you may know, I sometimes voice direct the cartoon shows I write…which means I do the casting.
Now, I happen to know a lot of voice actors and actresses. I know a lot of them personally and even more of them professionally. When it comes time to cast a major, ongoing role, I will spend a lot of time considering and auditioning different folks but most of the time, I'm casting non-recurring, small parts…and those, I cast quickly. On The Garfield Show, we have a regular cast — Frank Welker (who voices Garfield), Wally Wingert (who plays Jon), Gregg Berger (who plays Odie the Dog and Squeak the Mouse), Julie Payne (who plays Liz) and others. Sometimes, one of these folks will also voice a new character. Sometimes, I need to book another actor.
Booking another actor usually works like this: As I write the part or go over the script, I suddenly "hear" a voice in my head…and then I see if the actor who matches that voice is available. It might be Neil Ross or Joe Alaskey or Bob Bergen or Laraine Newman or someone else but if I can get them, I'll get them. If not, I'll think of someone similar. It's not hard since I have hundreds of actors to pick from…and frankly, almost anyone can do one of these smaller roles. It's just like in a live-action show. If you need someone to play a cop who has six lines and your first choice isn't available, your second or third choices are probably just as good. Occasionally, you even find out they're better.
There's a voice actor I've hired a few times who doesn't grasp this. He persists in seeing every possible booking opportunity as a contest between him and someone else. I really dread it when I get these calls and in what follows, I am not lying to him in the slightest…
HIM: I ran into Neil Ross the other day at an audition and he said he'd done a Garfield for you the day before.
ME: Yeah, Neil's very good.
HIM: I don't understand. What can he do that I can't?
ME: Probably nothing. You're very good, too.
HIM: Then why didn't you hire me for that part?
ME: Because I had my choice of dozens of guys who would have been fine in it. You two aren't the only ones. I went with Neil.
HIM: Because you thought he was better than me.
ME: No, because as I wrote the part, I kept hearing his voice in my head.
HIM: And you thought I couldn't do it.
ME: No, I'm sure you could have. So could Rob Paulsen. So could Maurice LaMarche. So could eighty other guys we could both name.
HIM: But you decided not to hire me.
ME: No, to be honest, your name didn't cross my mind in connection with this job. I thought of Neil. I hired Neil. If you're thinking I considered every possible person who could have done the part, you don't understand how this works. I don't stop and think, would you be better than Neil? And those times I hired you, I didn't stop to think, would Neil be better than you? I just book someone — and in a lot less time than this call is taking.
HIM: I just want to know what you have against me. Did I displease you somehow? The last time you hired me, did I not take direction? Wasn't I on time?
ME: You were fine. So was Neil. The only thing you ever do that displeases me is to make me have this same conversation with you every time you hear that I hired someone else for something. Some decisions are just whims or hunches, not contests. When I decided to wear a blue shirt this morning, that doesn't I mean I have anything against my green shirts.
HIM: I just wanted to get it straight. You knew I could do the job but you hired someone else for it.
Whether you're an actor or a writer — or even in some other job where people sometimes go eenie-meanie-minie-mo to make these decisions — you're going to drive yourself crazy if you think like the above-quoted actor. Don't do that to yourself. Don't view every employment opportunity as you dueling to the death with the Other Guy. That contest only exists in your mind. The person making the decision is not viewing it from that perspective.
I not only know lots of voice actors, I know lots of writers. Sometimes, one of those writers gets hired for something that I might have wanted to do. I've learned not to take it personally because I know it probably wasn't meant personally. My name just didn't come up…or if it did, someone had a hunch that the Other Guy might be better for this one than me. And who knows? Maybe they're right. I'm not dumb enough to think I can write anything…or that there aren't others who might not be a better fit on some assignments.
The Other Guy (could be a Gal) might have a better feel for certain projects…or might be more available or have a better rapport with others around. The Other Guy (Gal) might be cheaper than me or have done really good work in the past for some of those involved.
But more than likely, it didn't even come down to someone thinking, "Should we hire Evanier or hire The Other Guy?" They might not know me or my work…or maybe they did and my name just never came up. You have to understand how this works for the person making the decision. It's really a lot like you and me deciding to go to the Deli. And not only did we not decide to eat Italian or Chinese, we also didn't consider that new barbecue place over on Melrose or the seafood place up on Santa Monica Boulevard or the Japanese place or the burger joint or…
If you're a professional writer or you want to be one, you will at times lose out on things because of actual either/or decisions. Someone will decide to buy someone else's screenplay instead of yours. That kind of decision does happen. But it doesn't happen every time you don't get the job. Stop creating those bogus competitions in your head. You'll lose enough real ones without setting yourself up to lose imaginary ones.