Thursday, April 03, 2008

Witch Rejection

EDF rejected "The Witch of the Westmoors" just in time to bring me back down to some humble reality. I'm very thankful to Jordan Lapp for his comments and I think I can make the piece better because of them. For some bizarre reason, I was starting to feel like I could do no wrong and that everything I wrote must be in its perfect form. This is a dangerous place for a writer to be. Artistically you become like Terry Goodkind.

So I will revise a few things that I had fallen in love with despite excellent advice that suggested said love was misplaced. Luckily it is flash fiction and the revising will not take long. Then it's back to the submission rounds with a more firmly grounded sense of self.

6 comments:

Marcus Goodyear said...

Rejection is always tough. I hate it every time. Kudos to you for taking it in stride!

Keanan Brand said...

Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! (the remark about Terry Goodkind)

I think I only have one of his books, and it's okay, but the others I tried to read? I'm wondering why.

Bruce Durham said...

Goodkind... or Jordan... barely got through the first Wheel of Time book and never went back.

Good luck with the next market.

Jeff Draper said...

MG- Rejection is good when it comes at the right time. God has a way of doing that to me.

KB, BD- I thought Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule was interesting for about a hundred pages but I soon got tired of everything being the most emotional and most important and most all everything of the characters' lives. I just didn't give a rip about them. Robert Jordan is one I've never read; some of my friends think he's great but I don't have time for stories that go on and on and on...

Jordan Lapp said...

Goodkind started "okay" and went down from there. I read it to encourage a friend who doesn't read much to read them with me. By the time I got to "Naked Empire" I just about threw the book across the room.

And, BTW, I think it's the mark of a true professional that you took that rejection in the spirit that it was intended.

Jeff Draper said...

Jordan, I'm the first one to understand when business is business.