Well, today is a lost day. The lostness of the day is entirely to do with getting a single hour of crappy sleep last night and an allergy-sinus thing which is settling into my ears. I say that not to whine or give excuses, just to reassure you it has nothing to do with the theme of this post.
Which is rejection. When I started my resurgence in writing a month or so ago and committed to a submission a week, the first thing I got out was a story called, "The Best Medicine," which was rejected today by The First Line.
I think it's okay for writers to express their disappointment. I'm bummed. I like that story, and I was hoping they would to. But. I also want to take this as an opportunity to make some comments about the writer's response to rejections. Tomorrow, I'd like to make some follow-up comments on the editorial side of rejection.
There are some things which I personally think are flat-out unprofessional, unproductive, and inappropriate, even if they're understandable emotional reactions:
- Getting angry.
- Telling the world why you think the editor made the wrong choice.
- Making public defamation.
Here are a few things that I think are equally bad responses to one or two rejections, but arguably more tempting:
- Ditching your story.
- Jumping into major revisions.
- Panicking and suddenly asking for more outside opinions.
There are a few more responses that are even more tempting, but I think betray your professional development:
- Elaborating in a public context as to why you thought the story would have been a great choice for that publication.
- Speculating in public as to why you think the story might have been rejected.
- Suggesting in private or in public that you thought the story might not got accepted there, but you sent it on a lark.
I think the ability to resist those simple, purely emotional acts is one of the signs that you're treating your craft professionally. What do the rest of you think?
Oh, and by the way, yes, I will be immediately looking for a publication for whom, "The Best Medicine," might be a better fit at this time.
.Nevets.
I don't really understand the way some people react to rejection. Some people are AWFUL about it. I haven't been through a whole lot of it, personally, but I doubt I ever do any of these things.
ReplyDeleteAlso, awarded you an award (or two) on my blog. Might get some visitors from it. : )
I reacted a little bit more like like that when I was sixteen and first started sending things out, because I was was way, way, way too personally invested in each story, as if they were my dream children or something. Hopefully, that I don't react like that, is a good sign for my development and maturation as both a writer and a person.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks! :-D
I'm sure I'll figure out a good way to return the favor, even though I think at this point 75 - 85% of my vistors are also among yours. hahaha
There is a lot of merit to what you say. But what do you mean by "public?" I certainly see no harm in speculating with your writing group/colleagues about why you might have been rejected, if it will help you think of the right audience for your story, or even to address a problem it may have.
ReplyDeleteBy public I really had in mind broader audiences than that.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I would hope that if you had a writing group or colleagues, you talked about your story with them in advance, rather than after the fact.
I can see some value in talking to them even after a rejection, but I think writers who hope to be professionals need to break away from responding too much to single rejections. I think there's a lot to be said for not revisiting a story on the basis of your first rejection. If you had it in good shape, you shoudl send it out somewhere else.
If it needs to be revised on the basis of one rejection, you need to be doing a lot more work before you send your stuff out.
If you have eliminated an entire prospective audience based on one rejection, your audience may be too narrow.
I've seen an awful lot of writers (including myself) end up getting bottle-necked, because everytime there was a rejection, they went back to the story to figure how to improve it or how to retarget it. It's a great way to stall your own career.
After multiple rejections, that's a different matter. But one? Two? There are plenty more publications out there.
The truth is, you have no way of ever figuring out why a particular editor (or editorial assistant... let's be honest about that!) rejected your story. Save yourself the grief of spinning your wheels. If you have a good story, send it back out!
Maybe I'm riding that idea a little too much, but I know from my and a bunch of other experiences' that there's a place for crafting your story and there's a place for believing in your final product, and that doubt is an author killer.