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Rejection letters
May. 13th, 2010 04:03 amThey're a necessary rite of passage. And they suck.
For the most part I'm able to breathe in and out a few times and move on. There are a myriad of reasons short stories get rejected--this essay by Marion Zimmer Bradley sheds some light--but that can be hard to remember when you've just gotten three rejection letters in two days.
Like I just did.
Rejection letters have never made me throw up my hands and long to quit--I want to be a writer too badly--but I have on occasion put off sending a story out again until I felt I could deal with the whole process of finding another market suitable to the story. That's pretty much the head space I'm in right now. Three pieces to find new markets for--I'm sure I'll have a bout of "ooh, what's this shiny new magazine?" and "I bet X story would fit into Y magazine, how silly of me not to consider that!" in a few days. Right now I'm curling up on a couch with a book and wallowing.
I won't ever give up. But sometimes I do need a break.
So I'm . . . sending this out into the internet void. The point of this post isn't to garner sympathy--I'd rather think of it as draining the wound, and maybe as an offer of empathy, if someone needs it. Consider it self-therapy (I'm out of ice cream). If you've had a rejection letter lately, feel free to commiserate.
For the most part I'm able to breathe in and out a few times and move on. There are a myriad of reasons short stories get rejected--this essay by Marion Zimmer Bradley sheds some light--but that can be hard to remember when you've just gotten three rejection letters in two days.
Like I just did.
Rejection letters have never made me throw up my hands and long to quit--I want to be a writer too badly--but I have on occasion put off sending a story out again until I felt I could deal with the whole process of finding another market suitable to the story. That's pretty much the head space I'm in right now. Three pieces to find new markets for--I'm sure I'll have a bout of "ooh, what's this shiny new magazine?" and "I bet X story would fit into Y magazine, how silly of me not to consider that!" in a few days. Right now I'm curling up on a couch with a book and wallowing.
I won't ever give up. But sometimes I do need a break.
So I'm . . . sending this out into the internet void. The point of this post isn't to garner sympathy--I'd rather think of it as draining the wound, and maybe as an offer of empathy, if someone needs it. Consider it self-therapy (I'm out of ice cream). If you've had a rejection letter lately, feel free to commiserate.