The many faces of rejection

A couple of posts ago, I whined expressed concern about not having a November publication. Of course it’s a lot like playing lotto: you can’t win if you don’t play. I haven’t submitted much in November or October, or September, just resubmitting stories that have been rejected. One story has been rejected twelve times. If I didn’t love the story so much and believe in it and its potential to open doors and pave golden, diamond-dusted paths toward fame and fortune, then maybe I’d let it retire. But I’m deluded and stubborn: two very hazardous personality traits.

All this rejection is good for me. It’s thickening my skin for future agent rejections. You know, “Don’t take it personally, but we can’t stand you or your writing, and your story makes us want to hork all over my keyboard,” type of rejection.

 So I compiled some rejections from various short stories, so you, the curious, can know the different levels of pain I must endure from time to time.

 I present to you the polite but dull standard form rejection. 

Dear Ms. Sutton,

 Thank you for sending us ____. Our editors have looked it over carefully, but don’t feel it’s the best fit for our publication. Unfortunately, we are unable to place all of the fine pieces we receive. We wish you luck in placing it elsewhere.

 The impersonal and brief rejection 

Dear Artist,

Thanks for the submission. I appreciate it. But I’m going to pass on this one.

 The let-me-down-gently rejection

 Dear Tricia -

 Thank you for submitting ____to ___ for publication. Though I like your writing ability, I’m afraid we will decline. We receive many more manuscripts than we can accept. We wish you luck in placing it with another publisher.

 You are welcome to submit other stories to us at any time.

This-shows-they-read-it rejection

Tricia,

 Thank you for letting us read ___. It’s an amusing piece, but we felt it’s not a good fit for ___. Thanks for thinking of our publication, and good luck placing your piece elsewhere.

 The personal rejection

Dear Tricia,

Thanks for sending ___ to us. I’m going to respectfully pass on this piece. 

I like the characters and the voice of the narrator, Tricia, but the perspective’s a bit insular for my tastes. I like stories that focus a bit more on external interactions between characters, allowing the conflict to arise from those interactions.

 The-I-don’t-know-but-I-think-I-should-be-insulted-personal rejection

Hello Tricia,

 Thank you for the submission. This is an intriguing story, but it’s not the kind of literature we’re looking for. All the pieces we accept must, in some way, suggest an evolution in writing technique.

 The almost-there-personal rejection

 Tricia,

Thank you for the submission.  We’re going to pass on this particular piece, but it was very close. (No, we don’t say that to everybody.)  You’re a strong writer, and we encourage you to submit again. 

 The acceptance

Hello Tricia,

 Good to hear from you again. 

Thanks for that reminder of how smells can transport us to days gone by.

 And now I present to you my very first ever published (and written) poetry. It’s true, I wrote poetry. Don’t laugh. Okay laugh, you will anyway.

http://www.short-humour.org.uk/5writersshowcase/atoasttohorseshit.htm

Do you have any rejections you like to share?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

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Weathering the storm

Fresno had its first big storm in recent history. It rained yesterday so hard and for so long that I could do nothing else but to stare at it all day long. As a rain-deprived person living in a rain-deprived city (state?), I cherished each moment; I was in paradise.

I loved rain my whole life. I sneered at weathermen (women) who called rain ugly. Or anyone else who mentioned the “bad” weather we’re having. I’d be a perfect fit in Seattle or other places with high rain count. The times I’ve visited tropical places—Jamaica, Hawaii, Cancun—I wanted to spend as much time in the rainforests as I did the beach.

But places that see little rain suffer when it finally comes. The trees that receive its nourishment from the three-times-a-week shallow watering have roots that grow near the surface, where the water is. So heavy rains result in easily toppled trees. And walking home from my daughter’s school this morning, I saw several semi-mature trees uprooted, lying on their sides, knocked over by a light wind and water-soaked roots.

The trees that still stand are the ones who will benefit from the storm, made stronger because of the deep watering. For each storm it survives, it becomes stronger because of it.

I feel the same about writing. For each storm I endure, be it writer’s block, rejection, self-doubt, I become stronger for it.

It can either make us or break us.

I admit wanting to lie on my side and call it good, over, done, finished—everyday. But the fact that I forge ahead against the wind, against all odds, says I’ll be here awhile, plugging away, letting the smallest of successes strengthen my roots.

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Reject

For those of you unfamiliar with Miss Snarks First Victim, she is holding another secret agent contest on Monday. The genres she is accepting are Y/A MG  S/F and paranormal romance. If that’s you and you have a completed ms then check it out Sept. Secret Agent.

Also, an update on my July win of secret agent is a very nice rejection. She (the agent) received my partial (50 pages) and one month later she replied with the no-matter-how-nice-it-stings rejection.

For those who didn’t get a link to my entry, here it is. #22 Hiding in the Spotlight

P.S. Anybody out there have any links to character-driven query samples? I actually fantisized the secret agent would love my work and send me a contract (fed X, of course) and thus eliminate the torture of ever having to query. Not so. I sad.

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Can’t win for losing

My blog has been dark for a while. Mainly because I’ve been busy with entering some contests—some crazy, some real. And because I’m still suffering from the Idol results. Sure Adam will be successful, but it’s the principle of the thing: he had more talent and should have won. Sort of like how I feel about the results I got this morning about querytracker’s worst query letter contest THAT I DID NOT WIN.  Nor did I win last week’s Purple Prose contest. My query sucked as much as the winners they posted, so I just don’t get why I’m not winning. And the one sentence Purple Prose? Oh, come on, I should’ve won that. I submitted a super overwritten, outstandingly purpley sentence that would make the wordiest politician proud.

Besides being one sentence of terrible, the only other rule was to include “querytracker” somewhere in the prose.

Here is my submission to the Purple Prose titled The Wedding Singer

With my matrimonial ceremony in full celebration, I now ponder the wisdom of certain anticipations and precautions taken prior involving a recipe blend of geriatric vitamins, Metamucil, and Viagra—the latter two rumbling and stirring in predictable destinations, and now no longer in complete command of my netherregions, pity the heavily inebriated guest table of querytracker just downwind from me.

As far as my worst query letter, well, you’ll just have to take my word for it because it is too long for this post. Plus I didn’t save it and can’t remember its awfulness other than to say my protagonist was a male pigeon named Petal who was humiliated by his feminine name and it was classified as every possible genre there is, thus taking up one-half the page.

So as a recap: Worst poetry X

                             Purple Prose  X

                            Worst Query X

                            Adam    X

Such a waste of the worst and best talent.

Anyone else out there suffering a disappointment?

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