Just Two Words...

New story, new rejection. "Fingerpaint" got rejected this morning (via email) by Lone Star Stories.

I think for some reason e-rejections are easier, at least for me. It's sort of like spam – you're not exactly sure what might be in there, so you check it with the hopes that it'll be good news. It's not, so you print it for your file (You DO keep your rejections, right?) and delete it.

A rejection via snail mail seems more like a formal pronouncement from on high. "Your story has been weighed in the balance and has been found UNWORTHY! Here! Here's official documentation from the hand (or copier) of King Editor (or humble servant slush-reader*). Send this drivel to someone else!"

Actually, it's not that bad. I was on a web-site the other day reading about all the traumatic experiences people have with rejection. Don't get me wrong, rejection isn't fun, but it's not as bad as a root canal either.

I don't really mind rejection letters if I can learn something from them. When an editor says "It was too this or too that" or "I didn't understand this or that" I usually know what I have to do. Even when an editor says "Interesting, but the story did not appeal to me enough to accept it," that tells me I haven't yet read that magazine/ezine enough to know that editor's tastes. That takes more time and effort to correct, but it can be done. (Assuming that you want to adjust your story to a particular market, as opposed to finding the right market for your story in the first place.)

It's the rejection letters that tell you absolutely nothing that frustrate me the most. I know editors/readers don't have the time to give a critique to every story, but two words would be nice. Every rejection I get from Strange Tales has two words at the bottom in red pen. A horror story I had rejected contained the words "simple madness" at the bottom. Okay. That tells me something. Another had "confusing story" at the end. That's all I needed; two words. I knew I had to make it less confusing. And the editor didn't have to give me a dissertation; just two words.

In the P.O.E. Writers' Group, critiques were five minutes each. At Clarion, two minutes. I'm proposing a two-word critique for all editors/readers. Just two words. Even if they're "This sucked," that helps. Just two words. "Read more," or "You idiot," or "drop dead," or even "Subscribe now".... okay, forget that last one.

Just think...two words could revolutionize rejections for thousands of writers. No longer would egos be crushed like teachers' chalk on the last day of school. No more despair, no more suffering, no more dark, bottomless pits of misery due to lack of feedback...

"Dream on."

Now Playing = My Funny Valentine – Chet Baker
Now Reading = Veniss Underground – Jeff VanderMeer (almost finished)

* JJA – The Slush God - is the exception.