Ink on the Rejection Slip
A passage that ought to give all struggling writers hope, from Booker-prize winner Graham Swift’s Making an Elephant. He’s talking about the time before he’d ever published a word, though he’d been “a writer in theory and spirit for some dozen years; in practice – if not in print – for some five or six.” On the subject of rejection slips, “which can, of course, be the most cruelly impersonal things around” he says:
“They would come with an individually inscribed ‘Sorry’ or ‘Almost’, a ‘Not quite’ or ‘very nearly.’ Thankfully, they never seemed to have the tacit message, ‘Go away.’ I’m not sure how many stories I sent Alan before he finally took one…”
Yes, Virginia, there is hope in ink on the rejection slip.
Posted in Meg's Posts, writing tips
February 7th, 2010 at 12:50 am
Most of my rejection letters and emails were form letters or messages with nothing personal written at all. Mr. Swift was lucky!
February 7th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
The best rejection letter I got was for a children’s book, saying it was beautiful, but they were no longer working in that genre. Sigh….but I did keep it on my fridge for months.
February 9th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
I would have too, Kiki!
February 26th, 2010 at 12:23 am
Comically enough, I was thrilled when I got my rejection letters. I know, I know. But at least I knew that my manuscript was actually opened and read. They gave me hope that one of these days, someone is going to read my manuscript and fall in love with it.