Rejection…A Stupid Part of Life

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rejection, thoughts, writing

Writers talk a lot about rejection. As I get ready to submit another short story, I am thinking about it.

Cause it happens.

All the time.

And it sucks. Never ever does it suck less. Never ever does it get easy, does it not hurt.

 

Last Saturday, my daughter’s high school marching band did not advance to the state finals. I saw tears and faces draped with disbelief. They had been rejected. As much as I wanted to make the sting go away, I knew I couldn’t, I also knew I shouldn’t. That pain is part of life. If they don’t get into the college they want, or get the job they want, if they get turned down by the person they ask out.

If we always got what we wanted, would life be happier? Without feeling the stab of rejection, we will never know the joy of victory.

Life is full of the word no…sometimes it seems as though that tiny syllable is playing on repeat. Those two little letters drive a stake of sadness through our hearts, but also fuel the fire of determination. Stack those rejections and climb on top of them, use them to reach higher. Yes makes us happy. No makes us stronger.

Everything happens for a reason. Your path won’t be straight and free of obstacles. It’s called life.

Live it. Let the pain drive you to search for and find joy.

Just Gotta Short the Stories

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creative challenges, flexing writing muscles, short stories, thoughts, writing

I wrote my first short story long, long ago after taking a class on getting published where I learned that to get published you had to be published.

I know.

But it made/makes sense, publishers were/are more likely to work with someone who had experience. So…one of the suggestions was to write a short story for a contest or to submit to a magazine, because getting those published should be a bit easier than a book.

Okay. I figured I could do it! I had written a 100,000 word manuscript…what was 2,000 words, right?

Well, I did. But I learned that shorts are a whole other beast.

Getting a set up, a conflict, a climax in 2,000 words is tough. But doing it is good for my brain, flexing different writing muscles and challenging the creative gray matter.

I have found a love of writing short stories. An obsession, maybe.

Or maybe not.

Maybe my brain knows what it’s doing…what it wants. I write shorts in spurts. I didn’t realize it until lately, but I do. Right now, I am working on the third short in a row…I think it’s number three. I get caught up in anthologies looking for creepy stories. My brain lights a signal fire that says HEY I HAVE AN IDEA FOR THIS ONE! So I write…I submit.

And the current manuscript gets set aside.

But YOU SHOULD REALLY BE WORKING ON THAT MANUSCRIPT!

Maybe. Or maybe I need to flex the short story muscles, challenge my creativity. Writing shorts reminds me to be mindful of word usage, to pay attention to pacing, to use all my writing knowledge to get a whole story told in as few words as possible, to let my mind go wild and come up with a unique story.

There’s no room for info dumps. There’s no time to mess around with backstory. All the subtle hints have to be powerful.

Shorts carry a punch.

I can usually get a short polished in a month. Not very long, but it sure wears me out. After these last few, I noticed that I’m done. I am ready to go back to my newest manuscript and focus on it. But that’s normal. Looking back on my writing life, I will break from longer work to dive into shorts. I need it. My mind needs it. That obsession I think I have…maybe it’s necessary. Maybe it’s the way my writing brain works. I am definitely going to let it do what it needs.

This final creepy TV story is due at the end of this month. I am ready for it to be sent. I am ready to go back to Nowhere with Ember, my workouts in pacing and words and power complete. I’ll wait and see if any of these submissions are accepted.

At some point next year, the shorts will call again. And I will answer, ready for the challenge and hopefully becoming a better writer.

We gotta do what we gotta do.

 

Sometimes Brains Forget

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fighting your nature, overthinking, pantsers, plotting, story, thoughts, writing

I am working on a horror short story…

Yes…another one…

I saw a call for submissions and I CAN’T RESIST. 1,000-8,000 words…pfft…I can do that.

Deadline is the end of the month…YES THIS MONTH I KNOW!

I had an idea…I let it simmer…I started writing because there’s not a whole lotta time left. SO IMMA JUST GONNA WRITE IT NO PROBLEM.

Or, yes, problems.

I thought I was just writing it. I thought I was going with the flow. But I couldn’t have been because I kept going back to the beginning…fussing and overthinking. I had a list of lines to include…of images…of stuff…

I kept trying to order them, to…

OMG I WAS TRYING TO PLOT!

Well, no wonder I was having so much trouble. My brain and plotting aren’t friends. They are mortal enemies!

So I set aside my list and went back to the story. I quit trying to shove all the ideas down my poor story’s little throat and let it decide where it needs to go. Pantsers gotta pants. That sentence makes so little sense…AND I DON’T CARE.

I don’t have a complete first draft…BUT I WILL BECAUSE I HAVE NOW RECOGNIZED, NAMED, AND DESTROYED THE PROBLEM.

But…I’m sure this isn’t the last time this happens. Sometimes brains forget. Sometimes brains fight their nature and overthink. Sometimes brains try to trick us.

Silly, evil brains…

So we learn and move on.

#Amreading UNWIND…When Books are More Than a Story

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book, Neal Shusterman, thoughts, Unwind, YA books

Years and years ago, after picking up a few books at the library, I discovered the author Neal Shusterman. I first read his Dark Fusion books and loved them.

Then I found Downsiders…

and became a Neal Shusterman fan. I searched the library for his books, reading all they had. Here are some… go find more here. Have I read all of his books? Nope. But I am working on it.

All of them are fantastic! Don’t forget Bruiser…or Scythe. Have you read them? WHY NOT?

When I came across Unwind…

and…

Seriously. So many feels. So many thoughts. So many mind altering ideas.

Well, it’s the first in a series…so I set out to read the rest, but the rest hadn’t been written, so I set them aside because I WANT TO READ THEM ALL IN A ROW.

I have four…however, there is a fifth I have to buy…waiting for me to immerse myself in the stories.

My sister and her family came to visit over Labor Day weekend and my niece approached me and said, “We’re reading Unwind in school.”

Me:

“UNWIND…NEAL SHUSTERMAN’S UNWIND? THAT IS ONE OF MY VERY FAVORITE BOOKS! HAVE YOU STARTED IT?”

My niece might have been a little scared by my outburst, but she knows me, so she got over that. My sister then filled me in on the e-mail the teacher sent home about the book to prepare the parents.

This is no ordinary story, kids. The parents needed to be prepared.

This is a book that can spark a million discussions, that can change perspectives on…so many ideas.

Because of this very thing, my sister decided to read it too. Well, she has devoured the series.

Unwind takes place in a future where there was a second civil war between the Pro-life and Pro-choice camps. This book deals with the laws that were set up to stop that war. This book deals with kids trapped within these laws. This books deals with big questions.

And it does it well.

IT DOES IT WELL.

A beautifully written book. Great characters. A fabulous overall idea that hits you right in the heart.

Bravo to the teacher that decided to let her eighth graders read it. Bravo to the teacher for informing the parents. Bravo to the parents, like my sister, who picked up the book themselves ready to talk about it with their kids.

I hear a lot of people talking about the books they want to read, books taking place in a world they want to live in, books showing a society they want to be a part of. Maybe books should show us a better world, maybe art show show people what is possible. But so many things are possible. Not good…not bad…just possible.

Is the world in Unwind one people want to live in? Probably not. The laws enacted to stop the war…are problematic. Are hurtful. Are scary.

Unwind is disturbing. One chapter in particular really made my head spin.

But it made me think. It made me see the world differently. It affected me.

Good books should do that. Good books don’t have to show us a world we want, but show us what is possible, make us face what could happen, make us stare at what humanity is capable of and question.

In the questions, we grow, we learn, we become better.

Unwind did this for me. It puts humanity on display.

What do you believe?

Why?

Maybe it’s time to look at the whys.