Volume V, Issue 36 September 5, 2016 Word of the Week: rejection Dear ,
Happy Labor Day! You may be wondering, why am I talking about sending your writing
out on this particular day? And why is the word of the week "rejection" when the subject line is about publishing your work?
Well, the way I see it, labor (and rest from labor) comes in many different forms. I've spent the last blissful (and plain full) ten days hanging out with my daughter and her two boys, and it brought back in earnest how much work tending to babies and preschoolers
is—though it is sweet labor indeed. Can you tell how much I dote on them? (Baby Harry's "Everything's Better at Grandma's" outfit didn't hurt the bonding!)
This time has brought back so many memories of my life as a young mother. Among them was the reminder of how constant the laundry and food prep and clean-up is. Much as I loved being a stay-at-home
mother, back then I needed something to feed my intellect, something that I did for myself. Words were the answer: I started writing in earnest—and sending work out to be rejected—when my kids were about this age.
I learned, as you have likely discovered, that publishing your writing is a labor of love—and also pure labor. (Though online submissions do make the process
less tedious.)
That's the labor part. What, you may ask, about the rejection? Well, the thing is, you just can't get your writing published without being rejected, even if you're J.K. Rowling.
But wait—before you stop reading, consider this thought from this week's featured writer, Kim Liao, on FLIPPING YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON SUBMISSIONS, AND FAILING BEST: "We'd be much better off" if we could ...uncouple the word 'rejection' from 'failure'.”
Now that's an interesting idea, and so is the challenge Liao suggests we take on. I think you'll really enjoy this article, as well as learn a lot from it. For one thing, she references three classic books on writing and creativity: Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, Stephen King's On
Writing, and Art & Fear by David Bales and Ted Orland.
You may even find yourself getting a little excited about collecting rejections—they are proof that you are a real writer!
Love and light, Maureen
P.S. While this November's regular Coastal Writing Retreat is full, there are still a few spots left in the Coastal Retreat that focuses on memoir. I'd love to have you! Details here. Upcoming WordPlay DELICIOUS MEMORIES FREE! (Writing
about Food in Any and All Genres)
Food not only nurtures and sustains us, it’s a rich source of metaphor and memory! We’ll explore our connections with food as we write of when, where, what, with whom, how — and even why — we ate! You can use your food writings to create a family cookbook, individual essays, stories, or poems, scenes in fiction or memoir, a food blog, etc. — or just
for your own pleasure.
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THE GIFT OF MEMOIR COASTAL WRITING RETREAT (A Retreat Focusing on Memoir)
You’ll learn and practice engaging tools and techniques to retrieve and record your adventures, loves, losses, successes, and more with ease and enjoyment, no matter where you are in the process. $418 for the weekend beginning Friday, November 4th through Sunday, November 6th. Includes two nights’ lodging, two breakfasts and Saturday lunch (hotel tax and Saturday dinner at a local restaurant not included).
WHERE: The Sunset Inn, 9 North Shore
Dr., Sunset Beach, NC 28468
WHEN: Friday, November 4 – Sunday, November 6, 2016* TO REGISTER: Contact the Sunset Inn at 888-575-1001 (if you would like to handpick your room, view your choices here first, then call). Because the Inn is holding rooms for you, our participants, they are blocked off as unavailable online. Register soon by phone — this is a popular event and there are only 3 spaces available. The Inn will hold your reservation with a credit card. *Also, please let the Inn know
when you call if you are interested in the bonus opportunity to stay Sunday night, November 6th, at half price.
More WordPlay
opportunities here. Photo courtesy of https://twitter.com/the_kimlet Kim Liao is a freelance writer and editor whose essays, articles, and book reviews have appeared in a variety of magazines and newspapers across the country. She is a 2010-2011 Fulbright Taiwan Research Fellow, and has also received writing grants from Harvard and Stanford Universities. Her creative nonfiction has appeared in Fourth
River, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Hippocampus, Fringe, and others. Her essays were short-listed for awards by Bellingham Review and Fourth Genre, and she has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She currently lives in New York City.
Featured
Writing
Why You Should Aim for 100 Rejections a Year by
Kim Liao Last year, I got rejected 43 times by literary magazines,
residencies, and fellowships—my best record since I started shooting for getting 100 rejections per year. It’s harder than it sounds, but also more gratifying. In late 2011, a writer friend was sharing her experiences of having months of
uninterrupted writing time at her residencies at the Millay Colony, Ragdale, and Yaddo. I was staggered by her impressive rates of acceptance. You probably have one of those friends, too—you know the one I’m talking about, that friend who is a beautiful writer, but who also seems to win everything? I could barely believe that she had the balls to apply to—let alone, get accepted to—several residencies, a prestigious fellowship, and publications in journals I had actually heard
of. I asked her what her secret was, and she said something that would change my professional life as a writer: “Collect rejections. Set rejection goals. I know someone who shoots for one hundred rejections in a year, because if you work that
hard to get so many rejections, you’re sure to get a few acceptances, too.” This small piece of advice struck a deep chord in my fragile creative ego. My vulnerable ego only wants to be loved and accepted, to have my words ring out from a
loudspeaker in Times Square while a neon ticker scrolls the text across a skyscraper, but it’s a big old coward. My ego resists mustering up the courage to submit writing to literary magazines, pitch articles, and apply for grants, residencies, and fellowships. Yet these painful processes are necessary evils if we are ever to climb out of our safe but hermetic cocoons of isolation and share our writing with the world. Perhaps aiming for rejection, a far more attainable goal, would take some of
the sting out of this ego-bruising exercise—which so often feels like an exercise in futility. * * * * In the book Art & Fear, authors David Bales and Ted Orland describe a ceramics class in which half of the students were asked to focus only on producing a high quantity of work while the other half was tasked with producing work of high quality. For a grade at the end of the term, the “quantity” group’s
pottery would be weighed, and fifty pounds of pots would automatically get an A, whereas the “quality” group only needed to turn in one—albeit perfect—piece. Surprisingly, the works of highest quality came from the group being graded on quantity, because they had continually practiced, churned out tons of work, and learned from their mistakes. The other half of the class spent most of the semester paralyzed by theorizing about perfection, which sounded disconcertingly familiar to me—like all my
cases of writer’s block. Being a writer sometimes feels like a paradox. Yes, we should be unswerving in our missions to put passion down on paper, unearthing our deepest secrets and most beautiful bits of humanity. But then, later, each of us
must step back from those raw pieces of ourselves and critically assess, revise, and—brace yourself—sell them to the hungry and unsympathetic public. Read the entire article here:
WordPlay Now! Writing
Prompt This is WordPlay—so why not revel in the power and
potential of one good word after another? This week, it's "rejection."
PROMPT: This week, carve out some time to polish up at least one piece of writing, if you don't have any that could be sent out for publication, whether it's an essay, short story, article, poem, or full-length book.
Then, do some research, choose a market, and send it out. Not sure where to send? I recommend newpages.com. It's a great resource for markets, contests, and much more. Browsing it can teach you a lot about today's literary world.
MAUREEN RYAN GRIFFIN, an award-winning poetry and nonfiction writer, is the author of Spinning Words into Gold, a Hands-On Guide to the Craft of Writing, a grief workbook entitled I Will Never Forget You, and three collections of poetry, Ten Thousand Cicadas Can't Be Wrong, This Scatter of Blossoms and When the Leaves Are in the Water. One of her long-held dreams came true in July of 2015 when Garrison Keillor read one of her poems on The Writer's Almanac. She believes, as author Julia Cameron says, "We are meant to midwife dreams for one another."
Maureen also believes that serious "word work" requires serious WordPlay, as play is how we humans best learn—and perform. What she loves best is witnessing all the other dreams that come true for her clients along the way. Language, when used with
intentionality and focus, is, after all, serious fuel for joy. Here's to yours! |
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