In 1902, the poetry editor of the Atlantic Monthly rejected the works of a 28-year old poet.
Robert Frost persevered.
January 2003~From Journal
Things I've worked on this month:
"Things In Heaven" (short story) gets rewritten and new title: "Finder's Keepers"
Poems sent out to various places.
I'm plugging along on fantasy novel Spell of the Black Unicorn
Wrote and sent out essay to The Writer (this wasn't picked as winner)
Sent out another hint to Family circle
Sent short piece to Writer's Digest
A recipe sent to Midweek is eventually accepted
My mantra is to increase the success rate, you've got to increase the failure rate . . . in other words, send writing out, even if you feel you've got a glacier's chance in a live volcano, do it.
You have to develop an attitude. Or so I've read.
The attitude anyone needs in order to succeed is exactly the mother, the essence. If you lack it, you'll fail every time. It doesn't matter if you can brag that you re-write everything 30,40,50, or 100 times. It isn't only talent which makes a writer. It is not just hard work, either. It's a combination of that, and something even more important than those two things: devotion to your work; a belief in it.
This year I had a plan--to get so many things out there I can't remember it all, and increase my failure rate. I did win, all be it a small victory, but a victory just the same. Understanding that the odds are stacked against me, yet I did what I set out to do: GET PUBLISHED. My first poem was PUBLISHED! After so many rejections. It feels very satisfying, but I want to win more.
SNOWY NIGHT IN ILLINOIS
Drab gray streets turned white,
now shimmer.
Wind aloft rushes with
freight train might.
Cars slosh along up town,
while feathers from angel's wings
mound higher and higher.
Watching my foot-falls crunch and punch
through wet powder,
herringbone patterns follow behind me.
--published in Weeds Corner, Winter issue 2003 Vol. III, No.1
1 comment:
I'm making comment on my own blog here.
I had struggled through the '80's, and '90's trying to get several things published. I did manage to get an article published in 2002 ByLine. However whenever I approached their poetry editor, I was continuously rejected.
In the past, ByLIne was a very easy magazine to approach, and have something published. It's goal prior to Marcia Preston became Editor was to give flegling writers a chance. I'd had some things published there at least twice in the '80s. Then after my Junction Bookstore article was published I couldn't get in no matter how hard I tried and so gave up. I became very dispondant until I became published in Weeds Corner--and did so every issue from 2003 until I think my last submission in 2008. They required that you get a subscription so as to get a copy of your work, and I was still struggling and couldn't go this way. But Weeds Corner will always have a soft spot in my heart because Ruth Brookshire wanted to give every new writer a chance. I don't even know if the magazine is still up and running, but you can try to find it.
Happy Writing!
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