This Writing Game

When you keep submitting your work and getting rejections, it can be disheartening. Change that 'can be' to 'is.' With each rejection, you feel like the wind has gone out of your sails. You're sad--or mad--and you ask yourself if you should just chuck the whole idea of being a published writer. 

Change the 'you' words above to 'we' because you're definitely not in this alone. You have plenty of company in that feeling down after a rejection. We write, we submit, we receive a rejection, we feel crummy for a few hours. 

After that, we need to do some analyzing. Why was our work rejected? Did we choose the wrong kind of publication, one where our work didn't fit? Did we send a clean submission with no spelling errors, correct punctuation etc? Could we have used more sensory details? Did we make things clear? Do we need to do some revising before submitting to another editor? Answer those questions honestly. We know by then that we have some work to do. 

If you feel your writing is the best it can be, then find another place to submit. Editors are individuals. What one likes, another might detest. As writers, we need to find the right fit, and that's not always easily done.  I had that happen this week. I submitted a story yesterday afternoon in response to a call for submissions. This morning, I received an acceptance from the editor. The original call said the editor would choose one or two of the best stories to publish in December. It's seldom that an acceptance comes that quickly. More often, we wait and wait and wait and...  When it does happen this fast, it certainly boosts the ego. I also think about the many submissions that got rejected by an editor or the ones that ended up floating in writer space with no response whatsoever. 

Our poster today has some good advice. It's those small efforts we make day after day that help us reach success. We may not think that those writing exercises do us any good. We might get fed up with revising and editing our work. We might feel depressed that we get more rejections than acceptances. (Very few writers have the majority of their work accepted.) 

Once again, those two keywords, patience and perseverance come into the picture. If we have the patience to continue with those small efforts and the passion for writing that results in perseverance, we're going to come out alright. We're going to find some successes along with those rejections. 

We have to make up our minds that we're in this game for the long haul. Those small efforts must be made on a daily basis.

Opening Lines of Your Writing and Other Writers

We all know that the opening lines of a fiction story are of great importance. So are the opening lines of a personal essay, a memoir, and even a nonfiction article. That handful of words should reach out and grab the reader, make him/her sit up and take notice and want to proceed. 

Let's take a look at a few opening lines in well-known or successful fiction. As you read each one, ask yourself if there is enough to make you want to read further. Does a question pop into your mind. Has the author planted the seeds of curiosity within you? 

1.  “It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not.”

—Paul Auster, City of Glass

2. “Her father would say years later that she had dreamed that part of it, that she had never gone out through the kitchen window at two or three in the morning to visit the birds.”
—Edward P. Jones, “The Girl Who Raised Pigeons”

3.  “When the blind man arrived in the city, he claimed that he had travelled across a desert of living sand.”
—Kevin Brockmeier, A Brief History of the Dead

4.  “Your father picks you up from prison in a stolen Dodge Neon, with an 8-ball of coke in the glove compartment and a hooker named Mandy in the back seat.”
—Dennis Lehane, “Until Gwen”

5.“It was raining in Richmond on Friday, June 6.”
—Patricia Cornwell, Postmortem 

6.   “The magician’s underwear has just been found in a cardboard suitcase floating in a stagnant pond on the outskirts of Miami.”
—Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction

7. “On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide—it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills—the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope.”
—Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides 

8.  “In the town there were two mutes, and they were always together.”
—Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Try ranking these eight openings from the one that grabbed you the most to the one that left you feeling so-so.

What about the opening lines in your own writing? Go to your files and choose eight of your stories, essays--any kind of your writing. Check the opening lines. If you put yourself in the shoes of the reader, how would you feel about those few words? Would you want to keep reading? Why or why not? 

Yes, we all know that those opening lines are important, but do we give them enough attention as we write, edit and revise? Something to ponder.

Writers, Weeds, and Wishes

Our poster for today is all about perspective. The way we look at various parts of our lives means the difference between enjoying it or grumbling about it. What about your writing journey? The view we take is important in the way that journey progresses.

If you see a weed as you move down your writing path, you're likely to be the writer that doesn't show a great deal of growth in your writing. You have more negative thoughts about your writing and yourself as a writer than you should. 

There are a lot of writers who spend too much time putting themselves down. What goes across their mind might sound like this:  I'm never going to make it in top magazines. What publisher is going to pick up my book? It's really not that good. I don't want to self-publish because it's too much work. I'll never be a successful writer. The more you think those kinds of thoughts, the deeper you'll sink in despair. And that's not a very nice place. You don't want to go there. If you do, your feet will be stuck in the mud on your writing path.

Those writers who look at the little weed and immediately think of making a wish--they're the kind who will look for the positives in their writing life. They'll have thoughts like:  I'm ready to move to bigger and better publications. I know I've grown as a writer and can keep right on. I know I need to keep learning, and I will. If I choose the best places to submit, I have a better chance. I'd consider self-publishing my book because I believe in it, and I'm willing to work at it. Writers like this will move down that writing path at a more rapid pace than the ones who only see the weeds. 

So what's it going to be for you? Weed or Wish? Negatives or positives? I can promise you that life is a lot more pleasant for the Wish side writers. Sure, they have little blips now and then, but they know how to deal with them. They don't sit around having a pity party. You are the one in control of your writing journey. 

No writer is going to be 100% on either side. We might move back and forth, depending on the day and the situation. If we strive to stay on the Wishes side more often, we should be just fine. Note that I use 'we' because I'm including myself here, too.

High Hopes and Great Expectations

The photo above would be funny if it weren't so sad. I found it on my facebook page yesterday and wanted to share with you here instead of on facebook. I've tried to find the writing group that posted it but couldn't locate it. Perhaps some of you have also seen it. I laughed when I first saw it and then did a lot of thinking.

Writers all start with high hopes and great expectations about what their writing life will bring. Fame! Money! Recognition! Awards! Personal satisfaction! Certainly, we all daydream of achieving at the top rung of the ladder to success. Many do reach it. You and I can both make a list of authors whom we love who have done so. Even those writers started at the bottom and climbed and climbed and climbed before they hit the top.

As writers, we expect:

• to have our writing published
• to have editors respond in a reasonable amount of time
• to deal with rejections--we know it's part of the writing world
• to be a better writer as we move through the writing journey
• to work hard--very hard
• to have readers or reviewers who don't like our writing--it's inevitable
• to have occasional writer's block
• to have to search for inspiration
• to sometimes be frustrated
• to make some money
• to win or place in a writing contest
• to get bogged down in the middle of a writing project
• to get great joy from the act of writing
• to grow as a writer 

My list includes both negatives and positives. Hopefully, we can dwell on the plus side more often than the minus end. 

It's perfectly fine to have those high hopes and great expectations but remember that it takes hard work, patience and perseverance to realize the good part of our writing life. Keep plugging away and climb that ladder one rung at a time.