In April of this year, I was inspired to write my essay for famous magazine called How Not to Reply to a Rejection Letter. I hate that we can’t read every book that gets queried to us here. Sending out rejection letters is not my favorite part of running the site, but there are only three of us here reviewing the books that come through. Each of us does read the preview of the book and tries to make a good decision about whether or not we want to continue reading. A lot of our decisions are based not just on the formatting or quality of the book itself, but also on whether or not it’s a story that appeals to our interests or personal reading tastes. So, when we say “this is not for us” it should be taken lightly because it’s not meant to be offensive. It’s being honest. Rejection is indeed a big part of being a writer and getting your work read, not just published. Accept it.
Loneliness: John Steinbeck said, “In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable.” Mark Twain said, “Be good and you will be lonely.” Does that mean that most good writers are lonely? Probably. The art of writing itself is very lonely. Most of us do it alone. We sit down with a blank white space and a blinking cursor, and a head full of stories to tell or with characters talking to us. Okay, so it’s lonely and crazy. You can certainly expel your narrative demons by telling the story out loud, but a writer goes away to a lonely place and concentrates on putting the story down on paper, on filling that white space with words. If you are like me, you tend to keep that story all to yourself until it’s completely done. It’s like a really good lover that you just met; it’s wild and exciting and you want to have them all to yourself for a while before you introduce them to family and friends. But there is a cure for the loneliness. It’s getting to hold your book in your hands for the first time, or better yet, handing that book to someone else. For me, it was always a dream to see my book on the shelf in the bookstore. It’s hearing what others have to say about my book when they finished reading it. Just beware that you don’t use writing to try to cure the loneliness. It won’t work. There are so many great authors who traveled that path alone who have gone before us who can attest to that: Truman Capote, Carson McCullers, Emily Dickinson, William Faulkner, Edgar Allan Poe, Oscar Wilde just to name a few of my favorites.
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