Category Archives: rejection

>Case of the Jitters

Posted on July 4, 2010 | Comments Off on >Case of the Jitters

>I’ve finished the revisions on my novella and am ready to give it one more once-over and then resubmit.

I’m nervous.

Not to say that I wasn’t nervous on the original submission. I was. But sending out a cold submission, I was prepared for rejection. I wouldn’t have been happy about it, but I know good and well rejections are the rule, not the exception.

A tentative acceptance makes things more difficult. If I mess up the revisions, then I could easily lose out on the acceptance. And that would be more painful because I came so close.

I’m usually pretty good about having confidence in my abilities. I know I can write a good story. I know where my strengths and weaknesses are. I know I’m a good substantive editor and can pick apart holes in a story with the best of them.

But this whole process is new to me, as I’ve said before. I’ve never published original fiction before (other than drabbles). I’ve done a lot of things in the past year I’ve never done before, writing-wise: writing m/m, writing alternate universe fanfic scenarios, writing long stories. And now, writing original fiction for publication. It’s a lot to cram into a fairly short period of time.

At any rate, I’ll be resubmitting my story today, come hell or high water. Wish me luck.

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Posted in editing, fiction, rejection, submissions, writing

>Submitting

Posted on May 22, 2010 | Comments Off on >Submitting

>I’ve just send in my second-ever fiction submission (not counting a handful of drabbles published in a long-defunct webzine). The first submission came many years ago, when I knew much less about writing and publishing than I do now. I chose an inappropriate market and didn’t put enough effort into editing, so naturally, it was rejected.

Everyone knows that rejection is difficult. Unfortunately, it’s a fact of life for an author, especially one who’s just testing the waters. It’s easy enough to find suggestions and recommendations for ways to improve the odds of success, but much harder to implement them. Writing workshops, critique groups, “beta” readers, professional editing; at what point does it become too much? When do you reach a point of diminishing returns?

The story I’ve just submitted was originally written as fanfiction, which means that it’s been edited and read in a different form already. For that reason, I chose not to go through the workshop/critique whirlwind this time, ready to accept a rejection if it comes. Call it impatience, but at this point, I’d rather expend the energy on stories that aren’t yet completed. If this submission is rejected, then I’ll decide whether to put in the additional effort to try again.

Eventually, I’ll probably also return to that first story and give it more polish than it had on the first try. It’s a learning process, and I’m fully willing to admit that I’m still a rank beginner.

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Posted in critique, editing, fiction, rejection, submissions, writing