The Eventual

So today was a bit of a harsh dose of reality that I think I needed more than I would ever admit. My first rejection letter. There's a piece of me that wants to be indignant and act like a child, but, through the letter he was entirely professional and brought up some decent points. I can't be angry. Only push myself harder. And that in and of itself kind of sucks.

Below are pieces of the letter and my reactions to them. I'm leaving out the blaring errors on my part (my tenses changed once and I honestly, couldn't pick it out).

Dear Jessi,

Thanks for submitting your flash fiction piece, A Violent Sigh. It doesn't work for The Cxxxx Pxxx volume 2, but you're on the right track. I think you need a good year or two more of writing and would benefit from a writing group to help you hone your craft.

Ok Fair. I could benefit from a good editor, but I do run a writing group, so... points in my favor? Not really. I'm a good editor for other peoples work. I routinely tear Zack's work apart and help him rebuild it, with acclaim from the rest of the crew. My own stuff however... Might as well be blind. I suffer from something many writers do. We know what the gaps are and fill them in mentally so we don't on the page. Bad writers!

Your ideas are there, but the execution is off. I was an amateur ten years ago, but after a lot of hard work, I upped my game and made some sales. You've got to improve and figure out how to put the lines together better.

Ouch. Got it.

The piece was also very Underworld-esque and made me think of the opening of the first Underworld movie. That means this work is also cliche.

At this point in the letter, my jaw hit my desk. The piece I submitted is actually a improved version of an earlier blog post (A Violent Sigh). Underworld?! Really?! I didn't see it and still don't, but he's the editor and it's his publication. Ok. Put away the fangs. Because that would be Underworld-esque. And incredibly cliche. Admittedly, it's not the most original idea but honestly I didn't think it was cliche. That just stung a little more than the rest of it.

All hope is not lost. You've got some good ideas and I can see that you just need to work at this longer. Writing is a marathon, not a sprint. You have to work for years, study, write, read books on writing and get better. Have people critique your work and get better, better and then even better.

I do appreciate the "Don't worry you don't suck that bad" afterthought, and it did seem genuine. Like I said though I can't be angry in general. I can be upset for being called cliche. But again, hard work is the only thing that's going to fix this. So more sleepless nights, and poring over writing texts. Maybe one day my eyes will look less like this and more rested.

Namaste,
Jessi