There's a nice little meditation piece over at The Millions Blog, which includes possible constructive ways to dispose of literary rejection. Stephen King uses a spike and impales his. Amy Tan wallpapered the loo. LuLu will turn yours into toilet paper. It's worth hopping over for a read. Plus there's a bit in there about LROD:"...A blog devoted to the anger, pain and frustration that follows every "Good luck with placing your work elsewhere" from an agent or editor. This blog is itself an answer to what to do with your rejections: throw them away, but first, complain about them on the internet! The posts, penned anonymously, are sometimes funny, but the bitterness and wrath sadden me, especially when they're aimed at small literary journals. Stop blaming them, and start subscribing. "
I'd agree that we are bitter, and sometimes funny, here. But I don't think we're wrathful, do you? I think we're too beaten down to work it up for anger. But maybe I'm wrong.
1 comment:
As I've said before, I think we are just wannabe stand up comics only we prefer to sit down and try to be funny about our defeats. Frankly, most of the anger I've observed on this website has come from various editors and agents. I even cringe to say that, for fear of arousing their wrath. I could care less about being rejected at this point. I've stopped sending stuff out after my last publication. It was like winning the lottery. I'm not a gambler. But while I'm on the subject of gambling, when I eventually do return to submitting again, I feel like one could gamble a small fortune on reading fees for the plethora of contests out there and not win a thing. Out of principle, I will not send anything anywhere that I have to pay to get the damn thing read. I frankly would rather post it on the internet for free.
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