Have you ever noticed that on the days when you desperately need a bit of good news—when you’re viscerally aching for it—these are the days literary magazines send their faceless rejection letters? The universe is tilted against us. I wrote a piece that looked perfect for The Literary Commute . It was about commuting, and it was very literary. Even made subtle reference to Whitman, taking his poem in a direction he wouldn’t want it to go. Even though The Literary Commute is new, they sent me a rejection letter on a Monday, a day of direst need. I would say I’ve lost count of how many journals have rejected my work, but that would be a lie. I read enough to know that it is nearly every writer’s story. I had a professor once who said, in paraphrase, “If you’re work is good enough for some people to like, it will be good enough for others to hate.” It seems the haters outdistance the lovers by a considerable margin. Probably the...
Blog of a struggling writer.