Got rejected this week by two different different open submissions based in my city. Wouldn't have been too bothered but the quality of the work that they usually accept has been so middling I thought I had a great chance of getting in but no luck... How bad must my work be then if I can't get a look in? Make me doubt my own perception of my work and if you start doubting that, where does that leave you?I know rejection is just part of the process. How do you guys wrestle with it?
i cry under the bed
The authors of those middling works know something you don't and it is something very important, the reader is not anywhere near as interested in you as you are.
>>24739215Given their subject matter, that's definitely not true of a significant portion of them.
>>24739166I wouldn't trust any modern day authority on art. Everything is idpol fucked.
>>24739166Publishing has nothing, NOTHING, to do with quality. Publishing is all about nepotism. There are zero outsiders.
>>24739248>subject matterSubject matter doesn't matter, just the execution, speaking with the reading instead of preaching at them.
>>24739265They weren't even publishers. One was for a prose reading night at a independent bookshop with strong links to local indie publishers and the other was a stage to screen scriptwriting night based in my city's major theatre where local actors read local writers playscripts. >>24739287>speaking with the reading instead of preaching at them.Again, doesn't really apply to the works in question nor does the reverse apply to mine.
>>24739291>just trust me bro, I am like a literary god
>>24739300Trust what? I'm not speaking about the quality of the writing, clearly the readers who decided preferred theirs to mine but if you're taking that as evidence that my writing displays levels of self obsession that theirs do not then you're just flat out wrong. You've conjured this half baked narrative in your head about works you've not even read. Your little nugget of pseudo-wisdom doesn't apply here.
>>24739320>stop raining on my pity party!
>>24739325Wouldn't have minded so much if you'd said something halfway intelligent or perceptive.
>>24739166You have to take a long hard look at the work itself as dispassionately as you possibly can (getting feedback can help with this) and decide whether its a you thing or a them thing. Is your writing truly where you want it to be? Honestly? There's always room for improvement though after a certain point you can redraft your way into oblivion. Once you're truly content with it to the point where you have to let go then there's no more you can do. Their rejection is entirely down to their own tastes and interests and is ultimately is out of your hands. You've just got to keep going, keep pushing yourself and hope you get lucky with the next publisher or the next piece of work because, in the end, whether what you're vibing with is the same thing as what the publishers are vibing with is entirely a matter of circumstance. It's like getting into a relationship in that way.>>24739358Ignore him, most advice like that is people just talking about themselves.
>>24739358Guess I am wrong, You are a diamond in the rough and no one but you can see it. Would you do the me the honor of posting some of your writing so I can print it out and put it on my fridge?
>>24739376Thanks, that resonates. Sometimes the discrepancy between your own self appraisal and the appraisal of others can take you by surprise, though sometimes in a super enlightening way
>>24739166To make it in any pursuit, you have to have an healthy amount of contempt towards the opinions of others.
