I think you should do something on depression and writers. It's different than if I market myself as a lawyer and no one wants to be my client. It still sucks, but my law services aren't representations of myself in the same way that writing is.
I read a description of what literary journal rejection felt like the other day--I can't remember where, or I'd link to it--and the person said that it felt like a stinging, burning, red-faced humiliation, like she'd done something wrong by submitting.
This is how I feel with journals, too. Not so much with agents, which is who I am querying now about a novel. But every literary journal that rejected me, except for Agni who sent the nice "not our standard rejection" once out of two submissions, I feel embarrassed. That can't be right, but there it is.
I know things have been a little quiet around here, but maybe there's something to post on. Just a thought.
It sucks to receive and send rejections. As a journal editor, I don't want the writer to feel wounded after I decline a piece, so I stick to the curt, impersonal form rejections.
I know a lot of writers think form letters are a just way to brush writers off, show we don't care. But really, a lot of though goes into our journal's standard rejection so that it's vague enough to not sting, but has enough substance so the writer doesn't think we reject lazily without thought.
Keep writing, keep submitting. Journals are only rejecting your story or poem, not you as a person.
4 comments:
Yes, it would certainly provide some economy on my submishmash page.
I wish we could all somehow get accepted.
I think you should do something on depression and writers. It's different than if I market myself as a lawyer and no one wants to be my client. It still sucks, but my law services aren't representations of myself in the same way that writing is.
I read a description of what literary journal rejection felt like the other day--I can't remember where, or I'd link to it--and the person said that it felt like a stinging, burning, red-faced humiliation, like she'd done something wrong by submitting.
This is how I feel with journals, too. Not so much with agents, which is who I am querying now about a novel. But every literary journal that rejected me, except for Agni who sent the nice "not our standard rejection" once out of two submissions, I feel embarrassed. That can't be right, but there it is.
I know things have been a little quiet around here, but maybe there's something to post on. Just a thought.
It sucks to receive and send rejections. As a journal editor, I don't want the writer to feel wounded after I decline a piece, so I stick to the curt, impersonal form rejections.
I know a lot of writers think form letters are a just way to brush writers off, show we don't care. But really, a lot of though goes into our journal's standard rejection so that it's vague enough to not sting, but has enough substance so the writer doesn't think we reject lazily without thought.
Keep writing, keep submitting. Journals are only rejecting your story or poem, not you as a person.
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