Calluses

It's been a while since I sent anything out into the world - stories, queries, anything - so my formerly toughened hide is probably back to its soft-as-a-baby's-bum state once more. A year ago I was sending stories off every week, querying like crazy and rejections slid off me like the proverbial water off a duck.

Yesterday I started, very tentatively, querying Taillights. I finished revising last week (just in time to get it into the mail to a contest) and it felt like the right time to start sending out a few feelers. I'm not sure the query is 100% right yet, but until it's been rejected a few times, well, who knows? It's been through several rounds of critique and polish, so I'm pretty sure it's in better shape than those first, terrible queries I sent for Assignment 9.

Now the waiting begins. And the sandpapering of my skin and soul as I try to build up those calluses again so the rejections don't hurt so much.

How do you prepare for this frightening stage of the writing journey? What do you do to thicken your skin against hurt?