The Dredded "R" Word

Yes, I'm talking about "Rejection." Now, as guys, we're used to rejection on a number of levels. Every time you get shot down by a lady, even if it's the so called easy let down of; "Oh, you're such a nice friend, let's not ruin it by dating." Our ideas get rejected at work, we get rejected at job interviews. Rejection is part of life for all of us.

Writing is no different. Matter of fact, it's probably more frequent and harder to deal with than rejection in other areas of our lives. We expect it at work, we expect it nine times out of ten when we approach a lady. The problem comes when we spend months of our lives (or in some cases, years) working on our masterpiece that will set the literary world on its ear. I hate to tell you this, but thousands of other people have done that as well. Thousands of first time authors each year send out manuscripts. Thousands get rejection letters. Thousands are crushed and stop writing. Let's take this apart and save some heartache.

Realistically, a first manuscript from a first time author most likely will not see ink from a major publisher. There are too many people out there. Writing is a business. Publishers and agents buy what they think will sell. Just because they didn't buy this particular 'script from you and make you an overnight J.K. Rowling, doesn't mean that you can't write. It means they didn't like that particular manuscript. Rowling collected a lot of rejections, but she kept polishing her Potter books. It finally paid off. Joe Konrath collected over 500 rejections before he got his first novel sold. I got close to that before I sold my first book.

Keep in mind too, that if a manuscript is not marketable, it most likely won't find a home. If you're writing a book about hospice care and support, it most likely is going to sell to that profession and the people involved, no matter how touching the book is. You have a limited audience for a book like that.

Another thing to remember, is that even after you've edited your book as much as you think you can, it can still be edited. Find someone who is willing to do that for you. A friend in the newspaper business. An English or lit teacher that you know. Someone who is in the word business is a good eye to have looking at your work. Once it's as polished as it can get, then start sending it out with a query letter.

One last thing I'm going to talk about, and you hear it from publishers and editors all the time. Make sure that you are sending your baby off to the right place. Meaning that you need to send your manuscript off to the appropriate markets. You don't want to send a children's picture book off to TOR. They do fantasy and horror. Children's books are not their gig.

Now, you could bypass all this rejection, plunk down fifteen hundred of your hard earned bucks, and self publish. This is getting to be quite common. If you're a good writer, that's not really an issue. There are some great writers out there who started with vanity presses. You do have to sell a lot of books that way to get the big boy's attention, but it is possible. Keep in mind that vanity presses earned that nickname. I have seen some truly awful work that's published in this manner and put out on the market. In the case of a bad work, it does more harm than good to your reputation. Don't let your ego get in the way of common sense. Everyone, even Stephen King and Joe Konrath need to be edited.

The business of writing is not easy. You need a thick skin and tiny ego to succeed in the business. You have to be able to take rejection and keep working. You can't let it get personal. It's like any other work. Take the suggestions, keep working, and your manuscript will see ink. If you can't handle the rejection, you need to determine if you can handle being in the business. Every writer asks themselves that question at one point or another. The ones who get published are the ones who determine they can take the rejection and the struggle.

Where do Ideas come from?

Well, when the mommy idea and daddy idea really love one another. . . .Wait, it ain't that easy. Ideas for writing come from a diverse plan of existence. Truthfully, I don't know where most of my ideas for fiction stories come from. I was always an imaginative kid. Always living in my own little world. Something that drives math teachers nuts. A lot is just the way I think. Gary Larson, the great creator of "The Far Side" once said: "It isn't that I couldn't do a strip like "Blondie," but in my version Daisy would bit Dagwood, he'd get rabies, and go attack Mister Dithers." Stephen King said something similar in his book, "On Writing." People often ask him why he writes horror. His response is to ask what makes them think that he can write anything else.

Most stories are organic. They come from how you think and where your interests lie. Sharon Kay Pennman writes historical fiction, because Medieval Europe fascinates her. Ann Rice writes vampire stories, because the idea of an afterlife bothered her after she lost a daughter.

Ideas can be rather lame at first. If you love British history, and want to write a story about King Henry III and his son Edward I, you might find it pretty dry. Then you could do a little more research, and find that Henry had a antagonist in his brother-in-law Simon de Montfort, who wanted to extend the Runnymede Charter and planted the seed for democracy, by capturing the king and holding him hostage while he ran the country and forced these new laws on the other barons. Prince Edward stood against his uncle, killed him in battle, and put his head on a pike on the battlefield as a warning to those who would stand against the king. Edward I would become known as Longshanks, and would be immortalized in the film Braveheart. Cultivating the idea, giving it time to grow is important.

I don't do a lot of outlining, I find it too confining, but I do mull a story idea over for a few days before I start to work on it. By the time I start on a story, I have a pretty good idea where it's going. There are a few times that it will surprise me however, and I actually like that, as it means the story and the people in it are taking on lives of their own.

I have had ideas for stories come from unusual places. Once when cleaning the attic of our old house, I came across a suitcase, a pillow, a child's red jacket, a dolly and a newspaper from 1947. I put all that together and came up with a pretty good horror story about a little girl, Martha May, who was killed in an accident by her drunken father. Dark area of my mind to explore, as I have my own little girl, but it made for a good story.

Right now, I'm working on a series of zombie stories, and the first one has been published on the web at Tales of the Zombie Wars: www.talesofworldwarz.com/stories/ I've been on that kick lately, and don't know why, but the series has developed into a character study, in a horror setting. More about how people survive and continue with life rather than just blood and guts. The first story I wrote in this line, actually didn't get published, but will end up as part of the back story, and elements of it will be included in the series. That story itself was inspired by the Rhianna, Disturbia video. So, one little clip of less than five minutes has thus far inspired eight stories an roughly thirty thousand words.

Always be open to ideas. Some keep a dream journal, some people are just dreamers, some base their stories on fact. I've done a little of everything along that line. Just because an idea seems too limited, doesn't mean it can't or won't grow. You have to give it the room to do that.