In the land of struggling writers, nothing is more terrifying than the concept of getting a rejection letter from someplace you submitted your work. At least, that’s how I feel about it – I am petrified by the whole process. You pour your heart and soul into a story, you pound at it until it hurts, and then just when you think it’s safe to feel good about things, you realize that you need to send your stuff out for submissions. You realize you need to listen to someone else evaluate your work. You realize that, in the end, the creative process is up for review by some editor somewhere who can decide whether or not your work gets published.
Hurts, don’t it?
Submitting my work is the most difficult thing I can imagine. I have stayed away from it, preferring instead to ‘hone’ my work. Really what I was doing was hiding, but I didn’t want to call it that. So yesterday, when I was busy being utterly ballsy about finishing my grad school application (more about that in next post) I decided to just get it over with. Get my first rejection letter – who cares! Just do it! And so I sent out my story. To hell with it! I know the work I sent out isn’t half as good as it should be, but there it goes. And if it gets rejected, well… at least the first one’s out of the way. Then, I can just keep going from there.
First one underway. Let’s see what happens.
I pretty carried my first manuscript to the post office on a velvet cushion, it was so precious! The story was, of course, perfect and it was, of course, rejected. Somehow though, I felt I’d joined an honourable club which either means I’m particularly optimistic or I have contact with reality issues. I’ve chalked up a couple more rejections now but, as one of them was actually quite nice about the piece, I’m feeling rather more hopeful than deluded which means I may bother the poor man again in due course. Giving up isn’t an option and, as I have a few years on you, getting a move-on is! Brace yourself and dive in – the water isn’t always lovely but there’s a lot of company to be found skinny-dipping at the shallow end!
So, plenty of silence but how’s the wisdom coming along? Don’t go telling me you’ve given up! I’m on a shameless crusade to recruit subscriptions to my blog but, since I’m a pretty cheery sort, I wonder if my ramblings might give you an occasional giggle when in need. And most of us are in need! It’s free and if it’s annoying you can scrub it!