Victory by way of Rejection

More than a dozen years ago, when I had lots of free time on my hands and didn’t have any idea how I should be spending it, I picked up a flyer for a writing contest at a bookstore we frequented. The little voice in my head said something like, “Oh, I’ve always wanted to BE a writer. I should enter this.”

Then I tucked the flyer away, possibly marked the deadline on my calendar, and more or less went on doing those things that I did; spending lots of time reading and at the library, going out to eat, enjoying movies IN the theater; writing letters to family and friends back home (we lived in Houston at the time), and working, of course.

I remember the day of the deadline quite clearly, however. We were leaving town, going home for Christmas to visit. I got up that morning with a story in my head and I was determined to write it down and submit it. The problem, as I remember it, was that my story was WAY too long for the contest. I whittled, cut, edited, and revised until I had story enough for the short-short story contest sponsored by the bookstore.

I dropped my entry off on the way out of town.

I still have the letter I received a few months later.

"Congratulations on being chosen as a semi-finalist in Half Price Books’ Bedtime Story Contest. Your story will now be entered in our national competition where 20 finalists will be chosen. You should be very proud of your accomplishment, since we received hundreds of entries and the competition was very steep. There were so many wonderful tales to choose from that the judges had a difficult time deciding on the winners. Good luck on your road to the finals."

I received a $5 gift certificate to the bookstore. I WAS proud. Hell, I was giddy beyond belief. I STILL get a little thrill when I read that letter.

It’s not always that easy.

It was, however, a beginning. The letters after that were more along the lines of “thank you, but no thanks.” I kept trying… on occasion. But it wasn’t until I began receiving those rejection letters with frequency that I also started getting published (though admittedly, my success has been in non-fiction rather than fiction, for the most part). See how it works? You have to put it out there to see what sticks. I know this. You know this.

Yet… I’ve let almost two years pass without putting anything out there, unless you count the Kansas Authors Club contest which I DID manage to enter last year.

Last week, however, I received a rejection letter. The really good news is that it was not the only potential rejection letter out there. I have another potential that could arrive any day now and two more potentials nearly ready to submit.

One of my resolutions this year was to commit to writing a paragraph rather than a book. Page by page, I’m writing them.

Rejection Count 2006: 1
Rejection Potentials out There: 1