Rejection Made Me Kill The Aunt

I received a very nice rejection letter just before Christmas for a story I'd written just over a month ago. Because of it I killed an aunt.

First things first.  What made the letter so nice?  Three things.  1) It was a personal letter.  2) It stated the reason the story wasn't accepted and 3) The editor was right.

I didn't see the problem when I wrote the story and sent it off.  Basically, the editor said the story didn't get started quickly enough.  The opening paragraph caught her attention, and then it stalled.  Eventually the story picks up, but by that point too many readers will have dropped out.

I follow Heinlein's Rules as much as possible.  Horribly paraphrased, Rule 3 is to not continue rewriting a piece except to editorial demand.  Now, this was a rejection so I can't resubmit the piece to this publisher.  But rather than just sending it elsewhere, I took a closer look.

I spent a good portion of the beginning writing about a character that I really liked.  She's the aunt of the protagonist with a kleptomania problem (but don't worry, she's taking something for it.)  She hates her nephew's uncle and I thought this would add tension to the story.

But she doesn't really do anything.  She's there.  She bickers.  She starts to steal something but is stopped.  Finally, I have her leave the scene she's in so the story can progress.

And that should have had bells going off in my head.  My klepto was stealing story time from everybody else.

This wasn't all that had to be fixed, but the delete key fixed the biggest issue.  And you know what?  I didn't have to write a single word to to explain anything.  Every reference to her, every line of dialogue, all of it worked without her being in it.

And I really liked her.  Maybe Stephen King was right.  "Kill your darlings."

When It's Good To Wait

Typically, I have two writing projects going on at any given time: a novel and a short story.  For some reason, I tend to finish the shorts quicker than novels.

Here's the great thing about the pace of these 1500-5000 word stories.  I lose track of how many I've written, and where they are submitted.  (That's why God created spreadsheets after all.)

There is a magazine.  Never mind which one.  This particular magazine has a reputation for quick rejections.  A 10 - 30 minute rejection is not unheard of.  A couple of weeks I received a 20 minute rejection.  Yeah, it hurt.  I wept for minutes.  (Except that I didn't.)  So what do you do?  You keep writing and keep submitting.  (See Heinlein's Rules.)

A few days ago I finished a story that seemed to fit again, so I sent it off.  When I did, I discovered in my submission spreadsheet that I had another rejection I'd forgotten from the same magazine.  It lasted a week with them, and had a very nice rejection letter, complete with the specific reason it didn't make the cut.  (For those that don't write, a form rejection is the norm for most markets.)

I say all that to say this.  I checked to see where some of my current submissions were, and saw that this latest story has lasted four days with them.  That doesn't mean it will be accepted for sure, but it feels like I'm getting closer to the mark with this particular magazine.

Sometimes, it's good to wait.

The Courage To Be Bad

I've been reading Dean Wesley's Writing in Public blog, and if you're interested in writing you should too. 

In this post, the comments section contains a great nugget of truth.  In fact when I chewed on the nugget it got caught between my teeth.  My wife said, "You've got something in your teeth.  Have you been reading Dean's blog again?"

I'll give her this, she knows me.

It seems every day I have to reeducate myself.

A question and Dean's response is posted here with his permission (with my added emphasis) :
http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=10720

The Question:

Ian H says:November 8, 2013 at 7:02 amDean, like everyone else I want to say thanks for sharing with us for so long, it’s very encouraging … your persistence and work rate are amazing. A question which might be a bit tricky to ask when you are still in the middle of a novel, so maybe you might leave it until after you finish — in the last two novels, you seem to have come up against situations where (my interpretation) your normal method of turning off the conscious mind and writing the next sentence couldn’t get you all the way through. Apart from chats with Kris and twenty six (?) years of experience, do you know consciously how you figured things out, did you have a trick to sneak the solutions into the creative side of your mind without upsetting the flow?

The Answer:

dwsmith says:November 8, 2013 at 3:50 pmIan, the real base line key is not being afraid of failing. And having an inability to not finish a story. (Heinlein’s Rules #2) I very, very, very seldom not finish what I start writing. Sometimes I get side-tracked and forget, but if my focus is on finishing, I finish.And another baseline is the courage to be bad. Goes with the not being afraid to fail.99% of all reasons writers can’t finish a story is that their conscious brain comes in and convinces them it’s bad and that they shouldn’t type another sentence. I don’t care. Finished is far, far better than anything even if the story sucks.I would love to say that my ability in this comes from 38 years of writing, but it doesn’t. In 1982, when I finally dug myself out of the myths and found Heinlein’s Rules and started following them, and realized it took no courage at all to stop, only courage to finish and maybe fail, something snapped in my mind and I’ve never had the issue. I just flat said I was going to follow Heinlein’s Rules and they work and I have never looked back.One more point, realize your question assumes there is a “right” or “best” way to finish something. Nope. Finishing is all that matters. Who cares if the flow is upset? Whatever that is.Hope that helped.

How I broke Heinlein's rules

Here are Heinlein's rules (or as close to them as I remember) and how I've broken them.

1. You must write.

When I first started writing, I did everything but actually write.  I thought about it, talked about it and read about it.

2. You must finish what your write.

On those rare occasions I actually put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) I would get a few hundred words in and fizzle out.  Writing came harder to me than I thought it should.  Frankly, I felt entitled to become good at it without practicing.

3. You must not rewrite unless to editorial demand.

I broke this rule every chance I got.  My writing dripped out of the faucet.  Then, the few words I managed to compile would be rewritten again and again.  I wouldn't even wait to finish the story, since I was breaking rule 3.  I'd rewrite each sentence and paragraph until no life remained in them.

4. You must put your writing on the market.

Only a small percentage, maybe 10%, became submissions.  Not a recipe for success.

5) You must keep it on the market until someone buys it.

The vast majority of that 10% was rejected, and rightly so.  Some of it I resubmitted elsewhere, but not consistently.  Furthermore, I wouldn't write while waiting.  I was too busy waiting to receive my rejections.

There.  The formula for failure as a writer.  Now go do the opposite.  Heinlein knew what he was talking about.