Rejection

Holy shit, this is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. Anyone who has ever received a rejection letter will want to bookmark this. Thanks to Tricia Sullivan and Stephanie Burgis for sharing. :)

On rejection and courage (and the wisdom of Maggie Stiefvater)

Maggie Stiefvater wrote a great post on rejection today. I encourage you to check it out - it's not terribly long and has the truest message I can think of on the subject.

What she said really boils down to this quote:

Really, what it comes down to is this: you have to choose courage.

At some point, you have to decide that this is the path you're on, come hell or high water, and rejection isn't going to bother you. Distress just isn't an option. Your heart is an impenetrable box and the slings and arrows of outrageous industry gatekeepers or critique groups or your partner are not going to nick the surface.

In my experience (so far, submitted one novel to agents, biggest achievement = partial request), what Maggie said is right on. The only qualifier I'd add is that this applies to the process as a whole. We are human. We are emotional. We cannot always direct those emotions along the path of our choosing. This means that sometimes, rejection is going to catch you, it's going to hit you hard, it's going to frustrate you and make you forget you chose courage. Those moments are fine (though I recommend keeping them contained to as few people as possible). They'll happen.

But as you're working through your journey, whether it be submission to agents, working with a critique group, submission with publishers, or--hell--daily life, Maggie's so right: you have to choose courage as your default setting.

You see the email come in. You take a deep breath. You ready yourself for any answer. You open it. Damn, it's a rejection. You take a moment--a *moment*--to mourn what is lost and then whoosh! You move it to your Query folder and you go back to your day. You think about what the next email might say or what the next story might bring. You believe in yourself and your words and (in my case) the system. And when you don't feel courageous at all, you find someone to talk to about what you're going through and you say the courageous-sounding words because saying something makes it real in a certain way.

Be courageous, my lovelies. We'll all get to where we need to be someday.

What do you call these things?

I've seen them listed as "cellar doors" on some websites but I don't feel like that's a universal term. Is it? They figure prominently in a scene in my WIP and it's important that readers don't picture this kind of door:

In other news, I've been learning Japanese with my Rosetta Stone (super fun!) and sending out more queries for BLOOD AND SACRIFICE. And, of course, working on the WIP. :)

Hobbitastic

Nathan Bransford has a guest post on his blog today - a fake query letter rejection for The Hobbit. It's freaking HILARIOUS. It's also quite interesting to browse the comments and see who agrees with the "agent" and who agrees with Tolkien. Well worth checking out.

My thoughts (as you'll see in the comments):
This reminds me of a post at Miss Snark where she basically said to never, never, NEVER do things x, y, and z...unless you do them like that. All this advice floating around on the internet is good, valuable, and should be heeded--but as a guide. If you can absolutely rock something by breaking the rules then break them.

Stumbling blocks to stepping stones

Yesterday was a very important day in my career as a writer: I received my first official rejection!

You may be asking yourself, "Why the hell is she writing about this publicly and why is there a happy little exclamation point at the end??" Well, here's the thing. Rejection is something every writer has to deal with, all throughout his/her career. From the evil internal editor voice that wants you to know in no uncertain terms that whatever you're working on is crap, to constructive feedback received from your critique partners, to agents and editors letting you know your work isn't for them. Rejection can take many forms and a writer who wants to be in this for the long haul needs to be ready to deal with them all.

So, when I received my first "no thank you" from an agent yesterday, I didn't freak out. I took it in stride and thought about how I had just experienced an important rite of passage. I allowed myself some time to think about the ways that rejections can be stumbling blocks: they can make us feel less confident, make us question our self worth, make us question our skill level and doubt that bright, shiny future we've been imagining for ourselves.

Then I spent more time thinking about the ways they can be stepping stones.

When I think back on the various types of rejection I've experienced in my life, most of it resulted in a better, stronger version of me somehow. Sure, the journey that began with the rejection (or, arguably long before the rejection but stick with me here) and resulted in the new! improved! me was sometimes long and painful, but the end result was almost always worth it when I look at the situation objectively and holistically. Those rejections became stepping stones on a path of growth and improvement that has brought me to the place I am today--a place I'm very, very happy to be in.

So! I'm holding a little contest to celebrate this latest stumbling block stepping stone. Leave me a comment by the end of the day Friday 5/22, telling me about a stumbling block you turned into a stepping stone and one random winner between here and my LJ will receive a hand-written letter from me on a homemade card with my thoughts on how you make the world a better place. This contest is open to anyone, anywhere. Dig deep, people. This is as much for you as it is for me. :)

Progress Report

First, there was this:


(That's not really me. I'm a girl.)

Next, there was this:


(That's not me either. I'm 33 years old. And still a girl.)

But then...then there was this:


(Well, there were words under the stamp. And there wasn't actually a stamp because it was an electronic document.)

I have a draft query letter! Now for the fine-tuning...

Breaking out the big guns

All right, people. Tonight's the night. I can feel it. I'm in the zone. By the time I shut down this laptop tonight, I'm going to have a query letter that's nothing short of *magic*. Just to make sure, I've broken out the big guns:



Can you see what the wine is? It's Writer's Block Pinot Noir.



This was a Christmas (Birthday?) gift from my in-laws and I've been saving it for a Very Special Occasion. A time when I really needed the powerful mojo of alcohol specifically made for eliciting beautiful words. A time like... writing the most bad ass of all bad ass query letters. (Okay, so "bad ass" isn't really what I'm going for with the letter, but you see what I was trying to do there, right? I'm only on my first glass, for christ's sake.)

Off I go. Progress report to follow. O.o