I was going to just add a message about what we learn from rejection, but I just deleted it because rejection always sucks. I don't care how close something gets or if it's a standard form. It all sucks. And the waiting is ridiculous!
I think that's another whole topic. And I, personally, can see the other avenues writers take as opposed to day jobs. But I really don't think I'm up for any debate on spending time at a job vs spending time as a writer. These are personal decisions.
Well, there's that whole money for food, clothing, and shelter thing. But if writing pays for it, screw the day job!
Having run track and field from 7th grade all through college (including summer USATF camps)...... there are a lot of parallels. TF is basically solo (yes, your individual race can earn your over all team points, but outside of a relay, you cant rely on anyone but yourself to do the work and run the race) In TF, you can lose by a meter or you can lose by a 9th of a second (i literally lost by a boob), and what you said is the truth: it doesn't matter how close you are, a loss is still a loss and it sucks When you lose, you go back to practicing. you look at your performance and try to improve it (at least with my, my goal was always to beat my last race or my last jump NOT beat anyone else) in TF, you have to be patient; you cant rush a workout. you cant rush a lift. you cant get back on the track and expect to be better right off the bat. rushing it is how you get injured. Your coaches may criticize you, but YOU are your worst critic and YOU give yourself the worst punishments Rejections bring out the competitive side of me because of those 5 things I've picked up from TF. Yes they suck... but its motivation to try to be better. Its weird to think of writing and publishing as a sport, but thats where my mind goes frequently. (ps. i HAAAAAAAAAAAAATE waiting! uuuugh. even in Track, having to wait until near the end of the meet just to hear the results )
Maybe metaphorically hungry, which I think we all are. I've experienced periods of real hunger, and the last thing I could think about was writing. There is truth in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and worrying about writing belongs in the upper echelons.
13 it would appear that my lit-fic is more popular than my genre-fic my last 2 acceptances were for lit-fic and the majority of my rejections have been for genre specific fic....
Interesting you say that. I had dinner with my family a few weeks ago--most of whom are familiar with my writing--and I was telling them that I planned to write a lot more when I got into my 50s and could start working less. And all of them told me to focus on the literary stuff because they thought it was much better than my sci-fi, crime, and other genre shit I've done over the years. Like, they were really hammering me on that. I think what it might be is that I only write literary when I want to jam on real life stuff. You know, real situations with real emotions that everyone is familiar with. And it's not so much that my genre stuff doesn't have that, but more often than not my creative juice comes more from the speculatives and the genre bells and whistles. The cool stuff instead of the real stuff, maybe? Somebody really smart once told me that what distinguishes great writers from the good is that the great ones have something to say. Something real, specific, and instantly relatable. That at a certain talent level it doesn't matter how well you write technically or how well you spin a story if don't have anything to say. I think for me the literary stuff exemplifies that sentiment because I only bust it out when I have something I think it's important to talk about.
Genre is usually entertainment and doesn't hit on the deeper realities of life often (well, it can I suppose). But when genre does start to get more profound about the realities of life, it starts to get lit. (so to speak)
You may have a point, but I think I mostly disagree. Things like sci-fi, fantasy and horror can deal with deep and very real aspects of the human condition. I've also read non-genre that was pure entertainment with very little value beyond what's on the surface.
I screwed it up when I decided to say "starts to get lit" at the end. Originally I said it starts to lean toward lit, but decided on the more catchy phrase instead. As usual, I don't speak in black-and-white polarities, but in shades, or a spectrum, which is how I see just about everything. There's a lot of genre that has a literary feel to it, and I suspect a lot of litfic that feels a bit genre. All kinds of ways to mix 'em up.
This is a new one, after hundreds of rejections. I received an email saying I didn't win a fiction fellowship from my state's academy of authors, but my submission is still listed as "Received" in Submittable. Has this ever happened to anyone else? At first I didn't really care, but then I remembered I paid $20 to submit. I guess I still don't care that much, but it is a bit strange.
yep. I've received a rejection and Submittable still had it as "In Progress" i left it for a while thinking they just hadn't updated it yet. then eventually i just withdrew my rejected submission. another journal switched from using Submittable to another submission manager. so they emailed me a rejection (rather than go through Submittable). that submission status never changed, obviously... so i just withdrew it off of Submittable so it would no longer show on my Active list.
What you're describing has happened to me once before, but this latest submission never made it to "In Progress." It is listed as "Received," but I received an email (sent through Submittable) saying someone else was chosen for the fellowship. I guess I'm wondering how they read my submission and sent me a rejection email without the status moving past Received. Oh well, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. Like I said, it's just a little strange.
I know from working at a literary journal that it's entirely possible to read and reject a submission without the status changing. I'm sure you've probably encountered a submission going from received to a rejection and it seems like it never even went to in-progress. I have at least. It really all depends on how they're using submittable. Of course, it makes sense to me that you would want to use all the submission status labels as intended, and I do think the majority of places do. But I've still got one submission from 2015 that says received, and I was sent the rejection for that. I really wouldn't worry too much about it, but I also don't think it's unreasonable to send a short and polite email to the place if it's really bothering you.
97 day personal, I guess, rejection from Sonder magazine. They said "really well written" and shortlisted but, "high quantity and quality" submissions.
I know this isn’t the point but I just have to say, Sonder is a fantastic name for a literary magazine. I just became aware of that word's existence this year and since then I’ve encountered it three different times, including now. There’s a name for that phenomenon but I can’t remember it, though If I could I bet I’d encounter it everywhere. It’s not overtaken susurrance as my long term favorite word (and I don’t know if it’s a sibilance thing, but it’s possible) but It’s a word that I like the sound of and the meaning is extremely poignant. I know many will know it but it was a delightful discovery for me. ‘Definition: Noun. sonder. The profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passing in the street, has a life as complex as one's own, which they are constantly living despite one's personal lack of awareness of it.’ - Wiktionary It’s an amazing thing to find a single word that describes a process that we all go through but rarely, if ever, talk about. I’m not really qualified to comment on much in this thread because I’ve never received a rejection letter. I’ve never had the courage or commitment to get to that point. I do know unequivocally though that none of the authors I’ve enjoyed or admired ever had a backstory where they just decided to give it a go and it worked out the first or even hundredth time. Y’all are aspiring to that level now and I’m aspiring to your level. I’m going to do it and it’s going to suck and I’m going to embrace it and earn the right to complain about how difficult it is. The resources of the forum allowed me to read the words and experience here and the good faith format allowed me to decide what and where to post even if I didn’t have much to add. So I promise, whenever it happens, within a year or twenty, when I get my first rejection, I’ll proudly announce it here and hopefully that will ameliorate some of the liberties I’ve just taken.
Welcome, @Kur. Let me just say that getting rejected is easy. It's getting published that's hard. I think the best thing that you can do before you feel ready to submit is to read as many publications as you can that you're interested in. This will give you a real feel of their taste and style preferences. I think actually reading a lot of contemporary literature, be it genre or literary, is what gives a writer a real shot and an edge when submitting work. I've been reading literary journals my whole life. I don't know what it is exactly, but something about reading literary journals gets me excited to write. I don't know how much of this thread you've read. I started this thread because rejection is really hard. It often can make us question ourselves and our abilities, and a lot of people give up at some point. I received 440 rejections before I sold my first short story. I sold my first story to one of the biggest publications and was paid $1k for it. I would have never thought that a place like that would publish me, but it happened. I'm just saying that these things do happen. And I have to say all those rejections were worth it. Every time I sell a story I get that feeling. Rejections make me try harder, write more, write better. And having the rejection crew on here is a big help. We celebrate our best efforts and putting ourselves and our work out there regardless of the outcome because that counts for something too. I think that counts for a lot.
Thanks very much Very solid advice. With minimal searching I've found a site that lists and links to a bunch of publications in the wider area, with some based closer than I thought. Including one called ‘Splonk’. That merits a look based on the name alone! There’s a lot of posts and information here so my method with some of the longer threads has been to read the first few and last few pages to get a feel and hopefully retain some of it. In some cases it’s easier, like with ‘Today I learned’ because it’s specifically fact based, the search function was invaluable for avoiding a repeat. But in discussions like this one, the key words are going to be rampant so in situations like that, I just try to be as clear as possible. 440 rejections to 1k from a popular publication sound like a risk of emotional whiplash! Thanks for sharing and including. That definitely counts for a lot.
