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matrixrefugeeTaken from a news item on the Verizon homepage:
"There is a marvelous peace in not publishing," J.D. Salinger told The New York Times in 1974. "Publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy. I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure."
I have to say, I can't help but agree with him. I've rooted through bookstores and libraries, looking for a book on how to overcome fear of being rejected by publishers, and so far, I have not come up with *any*. That is my one big fear about getting published: the rejection slips. A lot of you saw how I fell apart earlier this week when some canon-Gestapo-wannabe came out of the logpile and browbeat me over a minor detail. Now imagine me trying to get something published and getting rejection slip after rejection slip. My dad's work-buddy "Dana" told the story about his "Uncle Steve", who got twelve or fifteen rejections for his first novel, and in frustration, he tossed his manuscript into the wastebasket. Then his wife, Tab, pulled the manuscript out, dusted it off and sent it to one more publisher, who bought it. I just don't think I have that kind of determination. I can see myself falling apart after the third rejection slip and swearing off trying to get published at all, maybe even swearing off writing entirely. Maybe I take my work too seriously, but I can't help feeling that my work is, in a way, an extension of myself, and that to reject my work is to reject a part of me, and by extension, reject me. Maybe I'm limiting myself, but sometimes, the only way to handle your fears is not to face them. I don't see any shame in admitting your limitations, as long as you can find a way to work and be fulfilled within them. The human spirit doesn't always have to defy the odds in order to triumph: sometimes just wanting what you've got is better than getting what you want.
People tell me I could be a very famous and successful writer, but I look at the tabloids, or even closer to home (sort of), at Dana's Uncle Steve and the crazy things he has to do to maintain his privacy (he's told us stories about fangirls camping on Uncle Steve's lawn and coming to the door at weird times. He's mentioned death threats and the hidden exit that Uncle Steve had built into an office that he used as a place to write, in case someone caused him any trouble. I don't think I could do that. I mean, I would like to be published, and I would like to have my work well known, but there's a too-fragile human behind the words and I'm not sure she's strong enough to handle the rough spots of publishing...
"There is a marvelous peace in not publishing," J.D. Salinger told The New York Times in 1974. "Publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy. I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure."
I have to say, I can't help but agree with him. I've rooted through bookstores and libraries, looking for a book on how to overcome fear of being rejected by publishers, and so far, I have not come up with *any*. That is my one big fear about getting published: the rejection slips. A lot of you saw how I fell apart earlier this week when some canon-Gestapo-wannabe came out of the logpile and browbeat me over a minor detail. Now imagine me trying to get something published and getting rejection slip after rejection slip. My dad's work-buddy "Dana" told the story about his "Uncle Steve", who got twelve or fifteen rejections for his first novel, and in frustration, he tossed his manuscript into the wastebasket. Then his wife, Tab, pulled the manuscript out, dusted it off and sent it to one more publisher, who bought it. I just don't think I have that kind of determination. I can see myself falling apart after the third rejection slip and swearing off trying to get published at all, maybe even swearing off writing entirely. Maybe I take my work too seriously, but I can't help feeling that my work is, in a way, an extension of myself, and that to reject my work is to reject a part of me, and by extension, reject me. Maybe I'm limiting myself, but sometimes, the only way to handle your fears is not to face them. I don't see any shame in admitting your limitations, as long as you can find a way to work and be fulfilled within them. The human spirit doesn't always have to defy the odds in order to triumph: sometimes just wanting what you've got is better than getting what you want.
People tell me I could be a very famous and successful writer, but I look at the tabloids, or even closer to home (sort of), at Dana's Uncle Steve and the crazy things he has to do to maintain his privacy (he's told us stories about fangirls camping on Uncle Steve's lawn and coming to the door at weird times. He's mentioned death threats and the hidden exit that Uncle Steve had built into an office that he used as a place to write, in case someone caused him any trouble. I don't think I could do that. I mean, I would like to be published, and I would like to have my work well known, but there's a too-fragile human behind the words and I'm not sure she's strong enough to handle the rough spots of publishing...
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Date: 2010-01-30 01:23 am (UTC)~Weaver