When you are not your work

Recently we had a guest on Writers Chatroom, Bruce Cook, who said, "You are not your work." He said this responding to a question about handling rejections. Anyone who submits their work for publication learns to deal with those. We have to suffer the momentary sting and then let it roll off our backs.

I know what you're thinking: Easier said than done. How many of us put our hearts and souls into our writing? ALL of us. We put our thoughts and ideas out there in our stories. So many writers admit to having a part of themselves in every character. Interviewers often ask about this symbiotic relationship between us and our writing. It's ourselves we are baring for the world. So how then do we take this advice and accept that we are not our work when it seems to us that it is as much of our flesh and blood as our children are?

Taking his words to heart simply means the rejections are aimed at the work and not you. The rejection letter or email is saying , "this story is not right for us at this time." They are not making personal judgements of you as a person, but accessing if this piece fits into the puzzle which makes up their publication. It is a good idea to take any personal comments included to heart and consider revising but remember rejections are only the opinion of one person's perceptions of their needs for that moment. They're not rejecting you for all time, just this particular piece.

It's that moment when our work goes from being our creation to a product to sell that you are no longer your work. Just as our children do when they're grown, the pieces become entities unto themselves. I hope you'll remember this the next time you recieve a rejection. Call them badges of honor. Send them another story and find a new home for the rejected piece. Believe me, the peace of mind is well worth it.

New Way to Blurb!

To generate buzz for her latest project, author Lisa Logan blurbs excerpts of her latest WIP's...by posting her favorite line written each day. http://authorlisalogan.blogspot.com/

Go check it out! You never know what new ideas you will get.

Publishing After 50?

Many of our members are well on their way to the Golden Years. Does this mean it's too late to get published? Of course not!!! You just have to be sure you aren't making mistakes that will doom you before you get started. Let an agent steer you straight...



"If you’re an older author trying to break into the publishing industry, it can be remarkably depressing to constantly hear the latest buzz about breakout novels from writers who aren’t even old enough to buy beer. The phenomenon is nothing new. Christopher Paolini wrote his bestselling novel Eragon when he was only 15. Helen Oyeyemi received a six-figure advance for The Icarus Girl at 20. And Kaavya Viswanathan’s roller coaster ride from literary “it” girl to accused plagiarist began when she was just a sophomore at Harvard University. But these are merely the modern equivalents of Mary Shelley, whose Frankenstein was published when she was 19 years old, and S.E. Hinton, whose iconic first novel, The Outsiders, hit the shelves before her 17th birthday."

Read the rest of the article here.

It's back!

Yes, the forum is finally back. Our "quick and simple upgrade" didn't go well. It put our board out of commission for nearly two weeks, and had Kim, Renee and I tearing our hair out.

The backup got corrupted, so we lost all the old posts and the old member list. The only option left was to start from scratch.

So now the three of us are bald, but the new forum is bright, shiny and new! Go register, and start annoying Renee. She lives for that, ya know. ;)

The forum is at http://www.writerschatroom.com/forum
See you there!

Audrey

The Writer's Chatroom Forum

You know how nothing ever goes exactly as planned? Maybe we should plan the other way first? Wink.

I want to say, Thank You, for your patience during the discussion board upgrade. The bugs are not yet worked out. We're working on it and hopefully, they'll be ready to go in the next few days.

In the mean time, I encourage you to check out the chats on Sundays and Wednesday evenings. They're still great places to hang out with your writing buddies and exchange thoughts or silliness.