Months and months ago Peabo teased me that I couldn’t call myself a writer until I got my first rejection letter from a literary mag that I had submitted a story to. I think I got a brief reprieve after being named a finalist for The Loft’s Mentor Series, but I still had to submit lest I lose my right to call myself a writer.
Well, Peab’s will be proud, I got my first official rejection today. One Story didn’t feel that “Imaginary Boyfriend” was right for them.
I thought about being upset, but I just can’t be. I’m so proud of myself for putting the story out there. And I’m a more than a little giddy about joining the ranks of “real” writers who get rejected.
Now I just have to figure out how to store and/or display my rejection. In one of the only writing books I’ve ever read Stephen King’s On Writing, he talked about how he kept all his rejections on a bare nail stuck in the wall above his desk.
(brief aside: this is the only one of two books I’ve read by King, the other being Pet Sematary when I was 15. Anyway, King was the editor of this years Best American Short Stories and I gotta say I’m a little taken aback by some of the stories — awkward, boring, and well, underwhelming)
Congratulations!!! 🙂
(See, I told you it would make you happy!)
i sent the same short story to four literary magazines with varying levels of glossy professionalism.
they ranged from stapled pile of practically mimeographed sheets to a little magazine with a title even the lay person has probably heard of.
my third rejection was from the stapled mimeographs [which i referred to as my ‘safe magazine’] and the one that took the longest was from the *famous* one i knew wouldn’t like me anyway.
anyway, it is kind of fun to say the phrase “rejection letter.”
Congratulations and welcome to the club. Come on over to www. literaryrejectionsondisplay.blogspot.com for more on the topic of being rejected. We’d love to post your present and future rejections. Sometimes airing the dirty laundry can feel good!
Congrats! I actually just got another rejection my own self, and felt bummed about this one until your post got my head straight.
dear ms. jodi, something tells me you would truly enjoy the book “how to become a famous writer before you’re dead,” by the writer ariel gore.
here it is on amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Become-Famous-Writer-Before-Youre/dp/030734648X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195675517&sr=1-1
and here’s an interview with ms. gore, written by one of your biggest blog fans:
http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/features/interviews/arielgore/
hope you have a happy thanksgiving!
wt