Inspired by a list of 100 Best Ways to Becoming a Better Writer on thecopybot.com, I decided in July that I was going to follow Number 66: Rack up Rejections. I set off on a crazy adventure in which I submitted work to 30 literary magazines in 30 days. At the time, I was really just expecting to get some practice in the litmag scene and also start steeling myself to the idea that if I wanted to write, I’d have to come to terms with being rejected.
It turns out, I learned more than I could have ever expected. It was such a powerful learning experience that I am doing it again this month.
I have been racking up the rejections. They are trickling in slowly due to slow response times. This is kind of nice so that I don’t have to hear 30 No!s all at one time. But I haven’t been getting only negative responses, either.
Flash Frontier, a purveyor of fine flash fiction, accepted a piece I wrote long ago about Alaska for their August 2013 Issue: Snow.
And that’s not the only positive response I’ve gotten. More news on that front as the publications come out!
Hey, that’s cheating! You’re supposed to rack up rejections, not acceptances!
Congrats on your acceptance at Flash Frontier. 🙂 I hope to hear the rest of your good news as you release it.
I like how you turned a post about one of the most grueling things in writing to a great experience. Thanks – it provides inspiration to us all!
~N
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“Is he dead yet? – No, he is a character on a piece of paper, he can’t die when he was never living”
http://ncbek.wordpress.com
Good for you. In the old days, I used to line the window frame where I kept my typewriter with rejection post-cards. I fondly remember the weird pride I felt looking through a window framed with rejection. The horizon never looked so sharp nor as blue.
This blog got me thinking about rejection and gave me the idea for today’s blog. So you get a Bean’s Pat. Check it out at: http://patbean.wordpress.com
Congratulations!!
[…] on Lightning Droplets blog, where the writer chose to submit to 30 literary journals in 30 days: Racking Up More Than Just Rejections. It sounds like the project had unexpected benefits, such as the discovery of new literary […]
This is AWESOME! I’m inspired, so thanks.
Congrats on your acceptance! You’re writing is superb. Enjoy your success 😀
Omfg…Your**** Siiigh.
Congratulations on the good news! Thanks for liking my post and leading me to your blog. I love the lyrical sound of your writing. I am excited to follow your progress!
Hey, I do like this post!
Out of some weird sense of self irony I actually wrote a piece about precisely this.
Hope it’s ok to share it here.
Love the idea by the way and hope to make the time to follow suit! Thank you!
http://soundcloud.com/poetinjena/rejection-school?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=mshare&utm_medium=email&utm_content=http://soundcloud.com/poetinjena/rejection-school
I hope you realize how big of an inspiration you are to other writers. I’m planning my own first submission bonanza for October (September for the research/polishing). I need to start racking up my own rejections. I have 1 in counting. Thank you so much and congratulations on the more than rejections! 😀
Congrats on your acceptance! If you don’t send stuff out, it won’t get published. Rejections are good, because they prove that you’re working hard to get your stuff out there. And each rejection is an opportunity to look at a piece again and see if it needs an improvement, or to ponder whether it was just sent out to an unsuitable magazine. Best of luck for many more acceptances!
[…] a Submission Bonanza! It was incredible and successful. I learned so much, and I’ve been published in three magazines so far (more on that to come later!). It was so successful that I resolved to […]
Thanks again for even more inspiration…
[…] end of the semester rolled around, I had been nominated for Best of the Net, published in Yemassee, Flash Frontier, Exegesis, and Saw Palm (forthcoming), written 15 solid pieces in three different genres, done two […]
Wow, 30 submissions in 30 days? That is ambitious! I am wondering– did you already have a lot of finished pieces when you started this? Or were you drafting and revising during the submission bonanza as well? Everything I set out to do takes longer than I think it will– even submitting! 🙂 Congrats on your publications.