Don't know why I feel the need to share my misery with you but I do. This has just been the worst week of my writing life so far.
I have had three rejections (it might be four but I don't want any more misery so I'll stick to three if it's all the same to you.) On top of that I've discovered that I didn't win three competitions that I entered. So much rejection. AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!
I know that you have to risk rejection to gain acceptance but does it all have to come in such a short space of time?
If this is not a cake afternoon I've never had one. Actually it's nothing like that at all. I don't feel the least but like heading to the cake tin. It's just one (or six) of those things and I've already put it behind me.
I know that one of these days I will make get more success with my writing and this is all part of the learning curve.
4 comments:
Try not to get too discouraged, Gonna B, though I know it must be hard. According to your previous post, you seem to be a very prolific writer. I on the other hand, have hardly submitted anything, so you're further up the literary ladder than I am.
You talk about a learning curve but I often wonder about how much we can learn from a scatter-gun/rejection cycle. Do the rejection letters tell you how to improve your writing, or do they just say "no thanks"? I'd be very curious to know, as I'm keen to improve my writing but I don't see how I can do that without constructive feedback. I guess I'd have to pay for professional critique in the end.
Yours, trying-to-work-smarter but needing-to-work-harder,
Captain Black.
I'm a great believer in working smarter not harder. Unfortunately I don't always practice what I preach. As for rejections, Jill Finlay and before her Billy Higgins at The Weekly News tell you why they are rejecting your story and I believe that is pretty standard for DC Thomson editors. As for the rest, I once had a personal message written on the back of the rejection from Marion Clarke at Yours but apart from that it has been a standard rejection slip. When I have submitted part of a novel there has been more comment. Three editors/agents said that the novel that I wrote that is currently tucked away in a drawer had good points/they liked it or something similar and then went on to tell me why they weren't going to commission it. At the time that made the rejection easier to take.
Gonna Be - we all have days/weeks like that. I think some mags have been on a clear-out cycle as I have heard of several people who've had lots of rejections lately.
Let's hope next week they are on a buying cycle and we all get some hits.
Enjoy that cake, and then remember - they are not rejections, they are re-marketing opportunities. As my friend Rosie said at our writing class this evening.
Re-marketing opportunities? Like it.
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