Monday, November 6, 2006

Temporary Paralysis

I received my first rejection this weekend. It was a very cordial email, telling me that
while they were impressed with the quality and content of the writing, it just
was not the right fit for their publication. Bummer. I know that, for
freelance writers, rejection is par for the course. Most writers have to get rejected upwards of ten to twenty times
before ever getting their work published. I know this. I have read it
countless times, heard personal testimonies, and listened to lectures all about
the rejection faced by writers, especially unpublished ones. I fantasized, however, about being the
one-in-a-million writer who so impresses the editor with her witty, succinct
query letter that she gets an immediate endorsement of her work and a fairly hefty
paycheck. 





I convinced myself that I might be that writer and waited
patiently for a response to my first query. I continued to write down all of the article ideas that I had and query
a couple of other editors but I was partially paralyzed by the anticipation I
felt waiting for the first editor to respond. I did not send out nearly enough queries in the interim as a result of
this temporary paralysis. It is gone
now. The realistic part of my brain is
fully functioning and I realize that if I am going to succeed as a writer, I
must be willing to put myself out there. Despite my egotistical fantasies, there are many, many writers out there
with as much or more talent than myself who are working harder to make it in
the business. These are the people who
will prosper as freelance writers. I
need to be one of these people.





I’ve got a plan. I’m
going to try to send out 1-2 queries per week. Now that I have experienced rejection first hand and know that I can
survive it, I am ready to start my one-woman assault team. Let the querying begin…



4 comments:

  1. U-GO-GIRL!!!! Alls ya gots ta hav is de faith!!!! Keep yo i's on de prize!!!

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  2. I feel for ya. Rejection sucks.
    Keep trying though...
    Apparently J.D. Salinger (our neighbor) got countless rejections for Catcher in the Rye - and then look what happened once somebody took a chance on him!!!! You can do it Jules.
    Pull out that ol' Mortimer Persistence; and if you need anyone to make some loud, angry phone calls for you, my mom is available. (She's no longer allowed to attend my O.B. appointments with me because she calls the doctors jerks and that they don't know what they're doing letting me continue to be so swollen and uncomfortable!!!! Even Keira tells her, "Zip your lips Mom-Mom."

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  3. Papa Dale-
    Thanks for the grammatically challenged words of support!

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  4. Spaz-
    I didn't know that about J. D. Salinger. That's encouraging.
    Maybe I should call your Mother in. I could get her to make some phone calls to the editors that rejected me!

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