As writers we get used to several things – rejection, disappointment, criticism and other slightly more enjoyable stuff like good reviews and peer approval.
We have two choices – be “big” people and say “So I was nominated but I didn’t win” or go back to being five years old and scream “not fair”.
It reminds me very much of Kipling’s poem “If”. It may be old fashioned but the values it expresses still count. See here if you want to read the whole poem.
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same
Maybe it really is “how” we play the game and not the winning or losing that counts, especially when other people have made efforts and overcome odds, backed you with cash, which obliges us to behave like grown ups. Feel how you like inside but please don’t stamp your feet and yell because the only person you are making ridiculous is yourself. Of course we are not overjoyed to be overlooked, or not lauded in the way we think we deserve but isn’t it better to be remembered as the one that stepped up and shook hands with the “winner” rather than the bad sport who stomped off in a sulk?
The Bingergread Cottage 