I'd like to say coping with rejection gets easier in time...

...but I'd be lying. As a writer you have to develop coping strategies for dealing with rejection, otherwise you'll be a very unhappy person. Doesn't matter how successful they are, writers hear no far more often than yes. Your past commissions, publications or awards don't guarantee more awards, publications or commissions.

Everybody loves a little validation. For writers, the most obvious example is somebody saying yes to them. Yes, we want to published your story. Yes, we want you to write that script. Yes, we want to shower you with cash and praise. [That last one's a bit of a pipe dream, but writers are employed for imaginations, so we'll let it slide.]

For writers there's nothing more dangerous that depending on the approval of others for validation. Enjoy the approval when it happens, you'd be a fool not to - but don't pin all your hopes on it. That's like strapping yourself to an emotional rollercoaster without any brakes and a tendency to crash far more often than it soars. Dangerous.

Writers have to find other ways to validate themselves. The approval of others cannot be your primary source of motivation, otherwise the uncertain nature of it will drive you and those around you crazy, Ivan. Instead, focus on things over which you have some control - like writing. Take the means of validation into your own hands.

Want to be happy? Write a great story. Finish that script you've left half-done. Enter one of your efforts into a competition - and then move on. More than anything else, I believe a writer needs to keep progressing, challenging themselves, reaching beyond what's easy or comfortable. Fuck that rejection shit - validate yourself. Onwards!