On Rejection
I’ve received a lot of short story rejections lately.
This is not, however, a post about how my stories are being undeservedly shot down by markets left right and centre and how no one understands who I am as an artist and why don’t people realize how awesome my writing is blah blah blah.
All of the rejections I’ve received in the last couple months have been along the lines of “This was really good, but we’re saying no” or “We almost bought this, but didn’t have room in our magazine”. While I’m sure there are a thousand micro-reasons why editors are saying no, I think the main issue is that what I’m submitting is just not quite good enough. “Almost” is the word that’s causing me the most frustration these days. My writing is good. It’s not great.
So what’s going to push it over that line? As with most things in life I suspect a lot of it comes back to the old adage of 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration. I probably just need to work harder. I recently read a great quote from Jack Nicklaus, which was “The more I practice, the luckier I get.” My only worry is that by practicing more, there’s a chance that I’ll just perpetuate any bad habits that I have, ingraining them deeper into my process. I’m trying to counteract this by reading more, and more widely, hoping to subconsciously pick up on What It Means To Be A Good Writer and learn a little about story structure in the process.
Anyway, I suppose this is a lot of time and energy spent writing about writing, when I should just actually be, you know, writing.
Hypocrisy, you’re a nasty little minx.
March 23rd, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Well, at least you’re writing and submitting. I haven’t done that in years now but I remember getting similar feedback. It sounds like you’re on track to me.
March 24th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Whatever happened to that book of writing exercises that Dan gave you a while back? I thought the idea of posting the results of those regularly was a great idea…
March 24th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
RE: The writing exercises. Actually, I’ve been doing some of these again lately. I should get around to posting them soon.
March 25th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Great post, Stacy. I’ve read a lot on game design as well as where ideas come from. One of the points I really liked from a game design book I just read was this: a game designer who only plays games in his/her spare time will find it harder to push beyond what other games are already doing. As game designers (or artists, or writers), we need to experience more than just our own medium. Inspiration can come from anywhere, and it’s in finding inspiration from unlikely places that we might come up with new ideas.
I recently heard a talk that Brian Eno gave and he talked about a deck of 100 cards he put together called “Oblique Strategies” (you can download a version for your iPhone). Each card contains a small phrase meant to push your brain to think about a problem in a new way. He meant it as a way to look at a creative problem from a new angle and perhaps find a way to overcome a block. But I like pick one in the morning and think about what kind of video game it inspires in my mind.
Anyway, that’s enough rambling from me. Good luck with your 90% perspiration! :)