Rachel Toor tries to calm students and academics waiting to hear back from their respective editors:
Now that I am a thesis adviser myself, I know that, even after meetings where I think I am being helpful and supportive, my students go home and cry. Later they suck it up and get the work done. I've also had students who internalize all their doubts, never voice them, and then blame me when their writing isn't going well. I'm not telling them exactly what they need to hear in exactly the right way. The problem is me, not them. Some become passive-aggressive. Some just become aggressive. Some never learn a thing.
But I also realize something else in thinking back on that conversation with my student in the cafe. I realize that after graduate school, it's not hard just to find attentive criticism of your writing. It's also a lot harder to find someone to whom you can admit your shame. If you're a new assistant professor, an adjunct, or a lecturer, who can you ask, "Is it normal to feel this way?" when you're feeling inadequate? Who can reassure you that yes, it is normal, and encourage you to keep doing what you're doing? Who can promise—or lie—that it will all be OK?
The Dish 