Tag Archives: rejection

Writing

Melodramatic much?

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Actually, I went back and read my rant about writing a synopsis and it’s not as bad as I remembered. I remembered making a complete fool of myself. 🙂 But I guess I only really freaked out to a couple of my friends.

I have to admit that being melodramatic and overreacting to things is one of my…well, we’ll call it one of my charms.

I was reading this page about rejections (a suggestion of Miss Snark’s on her blog) and it got me to thinking about my rejections. I’ve gotten enough of them to be a little used to it and I generally try (unsuccessful, but I try) not to get my hopes up too much. Not matter how much you know that it’s a long shot, it’s always a shock to the system to get that rejection. It’s really, really hard not to take it personally. Your writing is just so wrapped up with who you are, it’s practically impossible not too.

A lot of people get angry, and I can’t say that I don’t, but I tend to shake it off pretty quickly. It’s actually things like this synopsis critique or disappointing paper grade that will upset me more. Or not getting into a show I’ve auditioned for, that’s just awful. I’ve been trying to get published for over ten years, so I’ve developed some thickness of skin in terms of rejection letters at least.

Watch me go compeltely beserk the first time I get a rejection from an agent for this book.

At least whatever happens, I can count on myself NOT to write a nasty note to an agent. An ex-boyfriend…been there done that…an agent? No.

Writing

Snowed In!

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We got over a foot of snow! Down on my little cul-de-sac I doubt we’ll get plowed out by tonight at the earliest. Still don’t know if I’ll have to go to work tomorrow, but the public schools will probably be cancelled. The questions becomes if the colleges and universities will be as well?

Sadly, the terps lost their game yesterday. But they played with heart.

And I am very discouraged. No one likes my synopsis. And I feel very overwhelmed about my manuscript. I guess the difference between me now and when I revised my last book is that now I understand how much work it will be and I have a better concept of how much work it actually needs. And I haven’t even gotten to the really rough part yet!

School spoiled me, I guess. I could only realistically work on short chunks of my book and I wrote too many short stories. But as I learned writing IS revision. And I always like this part before. I’m thinking too much in terms of the big picture. I just need to get through his read through. Then I can start doing one thing at a time.

I can do this right? No matter what people think of my synopsis. I know the story is good; the world is even better. They both need to be excellent.

Mavelle (my main character) often says, “If I can just keeping singing…”

If I can just keep working…

Writing

Trying not to take it personally…

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but rejection sucks.

I knew I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up (remember how short stories aren’t my natural form?) but I guess I did. I think the fact that this particular story did well in a recent Writer’s Digest competition spoiled me.

It’s a strange story because it doesn’t have a normal structure or characters, and I have thought of ways to make it more “normal,” but I think the coolest thing about it is the fact that it’s different and so far I’ve refused to change it.

So are my author’s instincts correct and it should stay the way I have it, even though it might never get published? Or should I work on revising it to fit people’s expectations before sending it out again?