Some Wisdom Is Needed Here

Let's hear a few words from other writers like ourselves who have struggled with rejection and made it. (Any writer could probably qualify under those terms.) Though, do you think anyone ever feels like he or she has made it? I know of a very famous writer who lives in fear of never writing another book as good as the one that won him the Pulitzer Prize.  I also know of a very famous writer who was awarded a Nobel Prize after she was too old and infirm to collect it in person. Ah, life; a kick in the teeth, no matter how you slice it, right?

• “Rejections slips, or form letters, however tactfully phrased, are lacerations of the soul, if not quite inventions of the devil – but there is no way around them.” – Isaac Asimov
• “I discovered that rejections are not altogether a bad thing. They teach a writer to rely on his own judgment and to say in his heart of hearts, ‘To hell with you.’“ – Saul Bellow
• “I love my rejection slips. They show me I try.” – Sylvia Plath
• “Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.” – Kurt Vonnegut
• “Often, you have to fail as a writer before you write that bestselling novel or ground-breaking memoir. If you’re failing as a writer – which it definitely feels like when you’re struggling to write regularly or can’t seem to earn a living as a freelance writer – maybe you need to take a long-term perspective.” – J.K. Rowling

I Seriously Love Kurt Vonnegut. Have I Mentioned?

Here's one from the archives from the Atlantic Monthly, just to show that even KV got the heave-ho from time to time.  Lots to be Thankful for this year. Will write my annual list tomorrow.  I'm off to my in-laws, so it promises to be better than last year's disaster. Don't eat too much Tofurky mice; it will only make you sleepy vegans.

August 29, 1949
Dear Mr. Vonnegut:
We have been carrying out our usual summer house-cleaning of the manuscripts on our _____bench and in the file, and among them I find the three papers which you have shown me as samples of your work.  I am sincerely sorry that no use of theses seems to us well suited or our purpose.  Both the account of the bombings of Dresden and your article, "What's a Fair Price for Golden Eggs?" have drawn ____________ although neither one is quite compelling enough for our final acceptance.
Our staff remains fully manned as I cannot hold out the hope of an editorial assignment, but I shall e glad to know that you have found a promising opening elsewhere. Faithfully yours, Edward Weeks.

Photo of rejection courtesy the Saturday Evening Post. Fill in the words if you can and let me know what they are; I can't read them off the photo of the framed letter.

Kurt Vonnegut: Eight Rules for Fiction Writing

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

Who is Winning this War?

Kurt Vonnegut (may he rest in peace) used to say that he always felt a sense of camaraderie when he met another novelist. He said that he felt all novelists had been through a similar war together. And so it goes.