That’s right, Mr. Owl.
You keep staring at that ‘Declined’ email message, or that shortlist which for some totally insane reason doesn’t include your amazing story.
Believe me, I get it!
But it’s not going to change the reality. It’s nothing personal, and considering that no one actually died as a result, how important is it really?
Over the past few years I’ve submitted hundreds of stories to several hundred opportunities, and only a fraction of those submissions have resulted in some form of success or other, be it a longlisting, shortlisting, winning or getting published. Some years have been better than others, but months, years, whatever time period I might view these results over, are really the imposition of a meaningless constraint. There are no good years or bad years, because each submission is individual, as is each success and failure.
But let’s get away from these very loaded terms - success and failure, rejection and acceptance - and take a moment to consider what we are actually doing as writers.
I’ve written, and have wanted to be a writer, since I was child, because the worlds I discovered between the covers of great works - everything from J.R.R. Tolkien and Frank Herbert to J.D. Salinger and James Joyce - filled me with such wonder, I felt there could be no greater vocation in life than to create my own worlds and stories, and share them with others. Fifty years on, and here I am doing it, writing this post, tinkering with a new short story, working on a new novel, editing an earlier one, reading the work of other writers, interviewing my heroes, and being a part of the literary community.
I had no great plan to end up here, I just wrote the stories I needed to write and said the things I needed to say - or more correctly, that my characters needed me to say for them - and woke up this morning and found myself right where I am. It just sort of happened by showing up every day and trying to be the best writer I could be.
It hasn’t made me exceptional, it hasn’t made me rich or famous, but I do like to think that it has made me a slightly better person, and perhaps a more rounded and compassionate one.
If that’s not success then I don’t know what is!
And yet…
I received something like five rejections last week.
Total bummer, right?
Like, what the heck am I even doing, writing these stories if no one’s actually going to publish them? What’s the point?
To which my child self would say: Because you LOVE THIS!
Yes, I do, when I remember that success for me is in a well-turned phrase, a unique observation, a finely crafted tale. It didn’t exist before I created it, which makes it mine.
I did this, baby! I wrote it!
That, right there, is the joy of the thing, the blood and sweat and tears that the average reader won’t ever understand, but you guys totally get.
This is what it means to be a writer: to fly, to soar, to see the world from the lofty and often lonely altitude of literary creation, to take artistic risks and then plummet when they are unappreciated, only to find a thermal and carry on because we must, we must.
We do this or we die, not in body but in spirit, not in mind but in heart.
I know you understand!
Which brings me to the submissions we receive for issues of Frazzled Lit.
We read and truly appreciate every submission we receive, and we take the time to carefully consider them all. I feel it’s important to say, though, that while we very much wish we could accept everything, the simple truth is that we can’t. Of necessity, there will be rejections, and in technical terms, I’ll be the one sending them out, meaning I’m the one who gets to push the Big Red Button. This may result in much bad karma for me, and might even be why I got all those rejections last week!
So there will be rejections, but no matter what result you receive from us, please know this:
To us you are a success!
You created something only you could have made. Therein lies the victory!
We love what you do, so please, let’s keep doing it together!
I’ve been writing daily about my writing ‘career’ for the past few weeks. I’ve been sending stuff off for 25 years. And so I talk about rejection, obviously, it goes with the territory.
One thing I say is that I should remind 15 year old me of everything I have done. That child would have been amazed. So I always try to remember that, be amazed. Even when it’s a no.
https://open.substack.com/pub/drewgummerson?r=rg1n9&utm_medium=ios
Spot on. And, we all know all this, but it's good to see others say it, again and again.