Short one this week. Apologies for missing it last week. Really the whole week’s been tiring for no reason other than sleeping problems. It’s called going to bed at 10pm and getting up at 5am. To be blunt, I got a rejection notice (I’m wording it that way so the little SEO demon on here is happy) from New2TheScene. All credit to them, I did get to the final 100. So, I won’t complain that I barely made it. That’s still worth celebrating.
The Point
There has to be a point to these posts. Writing without one is ephemeral. To try and cram one in, I’d say it’s to keep trying. Rejection shouldn’t make you give up entirely. If we did that as a species, no cave man would have made it past the first attempt at lighting a fire. I’m sure whichever idiot stopped after a few swings later froze to death.
Anyway, rejection in writing means they didn’t like your work. That’s either because your work isn’t good enough or they just don’t like it. As someone who’s disliked people for no real reason other than a general annoyance, I get that. The issue, and this can apply to a few things in life, is lack of feedback. The competition gets too many submissions for the judges to give each individual a look over and pointers. The was still nicely worded, which does help.
“You didn’t get it. Go away.” That doesn’t sound as good, now does it? More expedient, sure, but not the point. You want your authors to keep trying so you can potentially make money off their books selling well. Also, the more empathetic argument: It’s nice seeing people succeed (unless they’re your opponents). The good news, other than what I said last time, is that I’m still continuing with my new project and sending the historical fiction novel off to publishers and agents.
Conclusion
Don’t give up. Giving up sucks if you’ve put so much time and effort into your work. Even if a few people reject it, you’ll find someone else. Or, might be the time to step back and look at why people don’t like it. Getting someone to look at the synopsis of an early draft got me to see the plot holes I’d yet to iron out. To use an example from outside of writing, I’m someone who’s found the line by crossing it and being told as much. Sometimes you need to learn from the mistake, even if that mistake is painful (it wasn’t that bad because I still have other people to talk to, but it sucks when I bungle making new friends).
- Thanks for reading! If you like this, please check out my published work:
- The Spider and the Moths, on Impspired.
- A Model Dwarf, Wolf in Sheep’s Therapy, on Impspired.
- Cramped Quarters, on New Contexts 4.
- Endure, Reclaim, in New Contexts 5.
- Lost and Found, in New Contexts 7.
- The Cleaner’s Burden, in Apocalypse Now?.
- The Last Man Standing on the Ash Heap, on Impspired.
- Fragile, in New Contexts 8.
- The Cleaner’s Clean Slate, in New Contexts 9.
- Or, you could have a look at my last blog post, which you can find here.
- Also, I have a Fiverr page, check it out if you need proofreading or copywriting work done. Link here.