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Posts Tagged ‘rejection’

Endless Nightmares, Russian Spies, and Other True Tales of Rejection

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Check out io9’s entertaining new list of classic speculative fiction novels originally rejected by publishers. It’s like a mashup of English reading lists from school and some of my favorite books.

Just goes to show, eh? Keep writing!

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What Have I Been up To? Dr. Seuss Knows!

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 11, 2013| 2 Comments »

You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.
— Dr. Seuss, in “On Becoming a Writer,” The New York Times, May 21, 1986

In related news, I just got a terrific rejection. Yes, acceptances are great but there is a lot to be said for a rejection that offers praise while pinpointing the one thing that’s problematic. I’ve been asking myself what was missing from this piece for months and now I know. That’s helpful in terms of this particular story but also for future work over the long term.

So thank you, Every Day Fiction submission readers, for doing what so many markets can no longer take the time to do: provide useful feedback.

Onward!

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To Anyone Who Has Ever Wondered About the Vagaries of the Slush Pile…

Posted in Funny, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The New Yorker Rejects Itself: A Quasi-Scientific Analysis of Slush Piles

… I grabbed a New Yorker story off the web (no, it wasn’t by Alice Munro or William Trevor), copied it into a Word document, changed only the title, created a fictitious author identity, and submitted it to a slew of literary journals, all of whom regularly grace the TOC of Best American Short Stories, Pushcart Prize, O’Henry, etcetera and etcetera. My cover letter simply stated that I am an unpublished writer deeply appreciative of their consideration.

That was it. I sowed the seed, and waited.

As for the result, please sit down and place your Starbucks Venti on a secure surface.

Dear reader, every single one of these journals rejected my poor New Yorker story with the same boilerplate “good luck placing your work elsewhere” auto-text that has put the lid on my own sorry submissions.

Oh my.

Obviously I’m not the only one who has ever wondered how overworked slush readers can stay consistent in the face of all of that precipitation. Author David Cameron’s quasi-scientific study (sample size: two) concludes, quite sensibly I think, that “slush sucks.” Now, I can either be depressed that even previously published stories can’t get published in some markets, or, well, not.

Rejections are inevitable, but I have to say that this makes me feel a bit better about my own.

Chin up, folks, and soldier on. The good news is, it’s not just you.

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A Thought for Monday Morning: Keep Going

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 18, 2013| 1 Comment »

This is a great bit by Ira Glass on Art, and how you have to keep working at it if you’re going to be any good… even when you know that what you’re doing isn’t as good as you wish.
 

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Making the Most of Rejection

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on January 28, 2013| 2 Comments »

I am relatively new to fiction writing. I submitted my first story in 2011 and have been fortunate enough to have some success publishing since. That said, I have also had an awful lot of rejections. Here’s the thing: I’m an academic. Ok, not anymore, but once upon a time. Getting a Ph.D. was terrific but did a number on my writing. What was I left with? Verbiage. Semi-colons. Colons. And commas, lots and lots of commas. Ever heard of a tale titled “An In-Depth Analysis of One Woman’s Experience with Conflict, Work, and Marriage: A Speculative Analysis of Gender Roles, Cross-Generational Attitudes, and Female-Centered Power Struggles in Medieval Europe”? No, because it’s a lot easier to just say “Cinderella.”

No matter what your background, writing for others is awash with rejection. I dare say that even writers like Ken Liu and John Scalzi have been rejected a time or two. The good news is that it’s not all bad. I’ve got a piece on blazing your own trail, and the potential usefulness of rejection in that process, over at the Clarion Foundation today. If you’re interested in ways to make even this potentially unpleasant experience work for you, check it out.

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