Jac
Mueno
Posts: 68
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Post by Jac on Aug 20, 2006 19:04:04 GMT
Just got a rejection for a story I thought was pretty damn good. Not really a surprise but it seems to have knocked me back a bit. I am sat trying to write but I am having a lot of trouble with motivation right now.
It's irritating, I'm good at this writing thing. I have to believe that. Why would I spend so much time sat in front of a computer screen if I didn't?
The question I have to ask is that if I'm right then why is it so hard to get some recognition?
So perhaps I'm not.
It makes it hard to force myself to write when I'm not sure whether I am wasting my time. I am about 7k into a story I think has the potential to sell as a novel. I am forcing myself to follow a few basic rules and I seem to be managing. It hasn't stifled the creativity process yet. I know where I am and I know where I am going to go. I think I might be onto something...
Then I wonder, would I be better off spending my evenings getting a job working the doors and earning some actual money instead...
Even this post is a kind of excuse not to write. I have Word open in the background and the cursor is flashing at me, taunting me, waiting for me to add more words to the page. Deep down it doesn't think I'll manage, I see it smirking out of the corner of my eye.
Perhaps I am overdoing it now. I'll go write a few hundred words and see how I feel then.
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Jac
Mueno
Posts: 68
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Post by Jac on Aug 20, 2006 20:12:45 GMT
1200 words later...
You know what, I am good at this... honest.
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Post by marianne on Aug 20, 2006 21:42:52 GMT
Hi Jac, most serious writers go through the things you describe. One of the hardest things is waiting for some type for validation that you have the talent etc (ie a major sale). In fact I think the validation need to come from within you. Publication on a major scale has numerous other components ie luck, timing etc. It is NOT the ultimate validation. What I'm trying to say very messily is that if you feel you have writing within you then just get your head down. Most multi-published writers don't write full time anyway - its so damn hard to earn a living out of. And don't worry about the rejection. You want to see rejection then go and find the review of Code Noir on the Analog online site. Reading is the ultimate subjective experience - its just that some reviewers/editors forget to mention that! I've had plenty of good reviews to balance it out - so I figure...'some people get it, others don't - vive le whatever!' Get your story back out there. Someone else will like it. MDP
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Post by Chirugal on Aug 21, 2006 18:57:20 GMT
Hey, Jac. I have confidence crises like that all the time... and I mean, ALL the time. I haven't really been in a position to send anything off to be published, seeing as I have a problem with actually finishing anything, but I just know that when I get my first rejection I'm going to swear off writing and convince myself I'm crap for at least six months. Even now, when I get writer's block (which is all the time), I get really depressed and sometimes even make myself ill worrying about it. But then I think... If Dan Brown and his horrible fragmented sentences can get published, why can't I? XD As Marianne says, it's all down to a publisher's opinion. If I was an editor and someone tried to submit something full of army jargon and stuff to me, I'd get bored really quickly and probably wouldn't think much of it. But pass me a horror story, and I'd probably love it. So keep trying! Good luck.
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