Hey, buddy! What about my voice?
Last week, I got an email from an editor (she’ll be the heroine of this story, but will remain nameless nonetheless). She asked me to make one change–one very small change–to the story that I had submitted.
Because I trust this editor–she’s very good at what she does and has built a friendly relationship with me–I said I’d make the teeny-tiny change she’d requested.
And then I panicked. Continue reading
In the last couple weeks, my productivity level has dropped dramatically. At first, I couldn’t tell what was going on with me. Was it because I was fighting a cold? The outcome of my flu shot? Too many days with a kid home sick or Thanksgiving vacation?
an experiment to demonstrate the change of seasons
Then I realized that this happens to me every December–the winter doldrums. Like many others, the lack of daylight in the winter months drops my energy level drastically. I feel like a bear who wants to return to my cave to hibernate.
It’s harder to focus. I’m working more slowly, and I’m a mite less sharp. For someone who likes to accomplish a lot each day, it’s hard not to be disappointed with myself. It’s hard not to feel like a dummy when your mind goes all fuzzy by mid afternoon, and a mild case of the blues makes it hard to be my normal optimistic self. Continue reading
I’m sure I’ve blogged about rejection numerous times at this point, but since I continue to collect rejection letters, why not continue blogging about them?
Mom! I think you just got another rejection letter!
Over the summer, I wrote a story that my husband adored. He likes almost all my stories, but this one he really, really liked. He particularly enjoyed the nasty anti-hero at the center of the story and the unhappy ending.
On the other hand, I didn’t like the way I’d originally executed my idea, so I set it aside for a couple months. Eventually, I brushed it off and polished it up a bit before sharing it with my writing group. They provided extensive feedback, and I acted on it, hoping that the new, much improved story would dazzle the editors. Continue reading
Thanksgiving is upon us here in the U.S., and this is a wonderful opportunity to reflect upon gratitude, whether you celebrate the holiday or not. I’m a big fan of Rabbi Zelig Pliskin and also of Rabbi Shalom Arush, and I’m going to combine their approaches for this writing exercise appropriate to the Thanksgiving season and year-round. This exercise is useful whether you’re Jewish or not–please don’t get turned off to it just because it was inspired by a couple of rabbis.
Be grateful for the medicine–it’s good for you.
Rejection is just about the hardest thing to cope with when you decide you’re going to become a writer, but it’s something that you need to learn to accept graciously. When that rejection letter first comes, you are often overwhelmed by feelings of resentment, anger, and frustration. You might lash out, calling the editors idiots or saying that the publisher doesn’t know what good writing is. You might despair, consider yourself a failure, or even give up writing.
But here’s the truth–you were meant to be rejected, at least in this specific instance. Continue reading
I may be an early bird, but I promise I don’t feed worms to my kids for breakfast.
I’m almost ashamed to admit it, but I am a morning person. Why the shame? Because I have discovered that there is nothing that night owls hate as much as the behavior of us early birds. And it seems that there are a lot of night owls around, judging but the fuzzy eyeballs cast in my direction at 7 am, when I smile and bounce and chirp, “Good morning!” at them.
When I lived in that sleep-deprived state induced by having an infant at home, my natural biorhythms were completely disrupted. Continue reading
As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been picking up the pace of my submissions, and also broadening the variety of publishers I’ve been submitting to. What I didn’t realize when I committed to this strategy is how much this would test my patience.
You might as well take a seat…this is going to take a while.
Let me explain. Usually, I write for Jewish magazines. If I submit a book, it’s usually a picture book involving Jewish subject matter. The world of Jewish publishers is very small, and the editors receive fewer submissions than those who handle secular material. The response time in the Jewish publishing world is much faster than in the secular publishing world. Moreover, some of the editors have gotten to know me over the years because they’ve employed me, read me online, or just like my style. I suspect that my subs don’t always go in the slush pile, at least in certain offices, B”H & bli ayin hara. Yes, I have to wait for a response from editors, but the wait is relatively short.
Re-entering the realm of secular publishing is a wake-up call to the realities of that world. Continue reading
Rebecca Klempner 