I tweeted the result on twitter and got a number of very comforting and encouraging messages. Not that I was fishing for pity. But it was interesting to hear from both well published writers and those just a few steps ahead of me, that they have received hundreds of rejections.
Still it was hard going through the list of available markets and assessing which one to send it out to next. Of course I had just read a brilliant story by Ken Lui the previous day which didn’t help – one of those stories that make you want to not bother writing because if they can have Ken Lui, they ain’t going to want Sean Wright.
But that’s the insecure writer in me talking, and as brilliant as Lui is, he wasn’t born writing Single-Bit Error, he had to get there the same way as everyone else.
So in the end I buried the insecure writer alongside the pessimistic inner editor (these guys must have brothers or clones, seriously you get rid of one and another pops up) and sent it out again. If it’s out there it’s still working. I can forget about it for a month.
I started another story too, which is good practice, it’s 400 words in and the concept is complete from beginning to end, so I feel good about finishing it.
So back on the treadmill. Learn to enjoy the making of the story not just the end product.
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Dave Versace · 635 weeks ago
The only way through it is to shake it off and keep going. Or so I am reliably informed :)
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SB Wright 110p · 635 weeks ago
My recent post Rejected–The Submission treadmill
Dave Versace · 635 weeks ago
My recent post Flash fiction – Snowball’s Chance
SB Wright 110p · 635 weeks ago
My recent post Rejected–The Submission treadmill
Mark · 635 weeks ago
I know why you mean about "talent intimidation" - I feel the same every time I read a great short story. I like your thoughts on your place on the writer's career path. I think I read somewhere that you have to put in a few thousand hours on any skill before you become proficient - by that count I still have quite a bit of practice to go.
Thanks for documenting your progress on the path to publication - very inspiring for those of us out there trying to get to the point where we are good enough writers to be published!
-m
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SB Wright 110p · 635 weeks ago
1000 hours sounds about right. I can look forward to being published in 2017 :D
I am chuffed that you get some benefit some benefit out of the posts.
My recent post Rejected–The Submission treadmill
SB Wright 110p · 635 weeks ago
Look at it this way. You have a story that didn't exist before and you're already working on another one. At some stage, an anthology will come up that will be perfect for what you have written. I sold a story that had won the Mary Grant Bruce Award, but had been lurking in my folders, when, suddenly, someone was buying library themed stories(it was a ghost story set in a library). My Snow White story had been rejected and lying around for YEARS before Mythic Resonance wanted myth and folk tale stories. And then there was my novel - rejected by every YA publisher in Australia before a lady who had liked it but had to reject it before needed a complete MS and bought it. Keep writing and submitting. Don't give up. And definitely don't go comparing yourself with other writers, however good, or you'll give up.
My recent post Rejected–The Submission treadmill