Rejected by the best!

Top-down, or realistic?

As an amateur/unpublished writer, do you really want to "waste" the New Yorker's time? Is there really the chance that you're the breakout undiscovered super-scribe? On the other hand, does it do you any good to have a realistic goal with your writing considering the amount of pavement-pounding one must do to achieve even an MODEST placement in a litmag?

I say GO FOR IT. True, a literary magazine may shovel your work back into the envelope with haste and fury, slapping that SASE back into the mailbox faster than you can say "wait!" but they know your name, now, even though it is as an object of burning scorn, a red, swollen blotch on a day that was otherwise pleasant. And that's fine, just... next time send them something better. After that, something even better. Then a better piece after that. Etc. They'll see you growing. Perhaps that will encourage them to publish your work? It could happen, I mean, at least, I think it could. I imagine it could. Right?

I mean, I don't know, don't look at me for advice, though... everyone thinks my stuff is too WACKY to appear in their magazine. They've got a public to think about, people. They can't have my ramblings sandwiched, shoe-horned, if you will, between advertisements for the Iowa Writer's Workshop and a fancy watch company like "Omega" makers of the acclaimed Seamaster series. How would that look, a story about owning a pet shrimp, slapped in between those two advertisements, those fine purveyors of their craft and trade? How it would look is, people would think the "The Iowa Writers Workshop is obviously a beastly hippie commune that espouses hard substance consumption as a means of simulating creativity, and the Omega Seamaster watch is clearly not the sort of product I should be getting involved with. It will probably cease to work right when I need it, or magnetize my credit cards or shoot springs and gears at my grandmother in a malicious fashion when I'm not looking, and then phone to have her placed in a dodgy old-folks home. Also, as I read this magazine I feel that the ink may be lead-based."

On the other hand, your writing may not improve and you may not have the option to send a increasingly better work of fiction each time your submit. If that is the case, no problem, there are still options (and most of them are not even suicide!).

Consider, instead, becoming the editor of your OWN magazine!

You could also become a blogger. OH SNAP, THE JOKE BECOMES A MIRROR TO WHICH I HOLD MY OWN EXPERIENCE UP AND SAY "GEE GOLLY, WOULDJA LOOKIT THAT."

Tagged and Filed: Summer 2008

Well, the summer semester of 2008 is over, the ponies are in and the jig is up. I must admit, this was probably the most academically challenged I have felt in my few years doing school/full-time work simultaneously.

A colleague questioned whether I will be able to handle 5 or 6 courses simultaneously when I return to school full time, if I'm feeling challenged by 3. I think I will, though. I mean, if the 9 hours a day I'm at work isn't enough for 2 courses lecture and homework (45 hours a week), I can't imagine that the courses are MEANT to be handled. Really, I hope that this will signify both a quality/thoughtfulness increase in my work as a whole (not that it is particularly poor or thoughtless now, far from it), and perhaps will give me the time to fully appreciate the density of material in a way I may not be able now. Maybe it will do these things. Maybe it truly will overwhelm me, though. So many variables, x's upon y's upon n's.

In the meantime, as the semesters tick down and I wrap up the last few classes I have left to sort out, I'm keeping the schedule for submissions heavy (I have about 10-15 out currently, and am endeavoring to keep that pace up), and am working on my transfer admissions essays heavily as well. Most schools require three essays in addition to resume and application information. I probably need to retake the SATs, though I need to get my scores from my high school and figure out what they were sometime this or next week (I think they said they'd be back to business in August). I'm 99% sure I could do better on them now, but, ya know, who knows. Just want to give them the best idea of who I am now, not... almost 10 years ago at this point.

Anyway, yeah, a lot on my mind. Off to a meeting. Later.