Writers: The Big Red X
Stan Grimes
February 17, 2008
You´ve seen the commercial, "Help, I´ve fallen and I can´t get up." Sure, hasn´t everyone? The elderly lady in the commercial pushes a button and suddenly the world of good guys come to her home and she is carried off to good-guy land. Doesn´t seem to work that way for writers, does it?
No, you´ve written a reject and no one can help, no buttons to push and no good guys come to carry you off to writers´ paradise. That´s the reality of it all. Most people take writing for advantage. When they sit down to read a magazine article, a story, or a newspaper, they don´t really give a thought to the writer whose sweat has been poured out over the six or seven hundred words, or the sixty or seventy thousand words they have just read.
Readers seldom think about the effort of writing. That´s good actually. It means the writer has done his/her job well. If you have written a good article or a good story, it should be so squeaky clean that no one has to get out a dictionary or Thesaurus to figure out its meaning.
The reject, oh boy, the reader never sees it. You, the writer gets to see the big red X screaming, "you flopped." Okay, so maybe there isn´t a big red X, but you get the idea. It feels like a big red X. Fortunately, the reader gets to read the articles or books that have passed the publishers´ guidelines. They don´t read the failures.
I just finished a novel, over fifty thousand cleverly chosen words written by moi. It was rejected. Did I have the big red X syndrome? You bet your booty I did. Fact is, the publisher rejecting my works had accepted one of my stories just recently. You can´t beat that for the big red X feeling (I dare you).
Unfortunately for writers, there are no magic buttons to call in the good guys, but there are books and millions of samples out there in the literary jungle. Becoming a good writer is not easy, but learning from your mistakes is. Those who have read some of my previous articles may say that I´m being a bit redundant, but I can´t emphasize it enough. That´s how important education is for the writer, no, not a college education necessarily, but self-education. Educate yourselves. Read the American Chronicle, subscribe to as many literary newsletters out there as you can, read your newspaper, or go skydiving with an expert.
I have a saying (please remember it because I probably won´t), "if writing comes easy to you then you are either plagiarizing someone´s work or you´re a graduate from Columbia´s School of Journalism."
Happy writing.
No, you´ve written a reject and no one can help, no buttons to push and no good guys come to carry you off to writers´ paradise. That´s the reality of it all. Most people take writing for advantage. When they sit down to read a magazine article, a story, or a newspaper, they don´t really give a thought to the writer whose sweat has been poured out over the six or seven hundred words, or the sixty or seventy thousand words they have just read.
Readers seldom think about the effort of writing. That´s good actually. It means the writer has done his/her job well. If you have written a good article or a good story, it should be so squeaky clean that no one has to get out a dictionary or Thesaurus to figure out its meaning.
The reject, oh boy, the reader never sees it. You, the writer gets to see the big red X screaming, "you flopped." Okay, so maybe there isn´t a big red X, but you get the idea. It feels like a big red X. Fortunately, the reader gets to read the articles or books that have passed the publishers´ guidelines. They don´t read the failures.
I just finished a novel, over fifty thousand cleverly chosen words written by moi. It was rejected. Did I have the big red X syndrome? You bet your booty I did. Fact is, the publisher rejecting my works had accepted one of my stories just recently. You can´t beat that for the big red X feeling (I dare you).
Unfortunately for writers, there are no magic buttons to call in the good guys, but there are books and millions of samples out there in the literary jungle. Becoming a good writer is not easy, but learning from your mistakes is. Those who have read some of my previous articles may say that I´m being a bit redundant, but I can´t emphasize it enough. That´s how important education is for the writer, no, not a college education necessarily, but self-education. Educate yourselves. Read the American Chronicle, subscribe to as many literary newsletters out there as you can, read your newspaper, or go skydiving with an expert.
I have a saying (please remember it because I probably won´t), "if writing comes easy to you then you are either plagiarizing someone´s work or you´re a graduate from Columbia´s School of Journalism."
Happy writing.
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