The Ups and Downs

Sometimes I forget how weird the writing life can be for one's emotions. Last night I found out that an article I thought was accepted for a book wasn't going to be used after all. The editors had liked my piece originally, but decided to go in a different direction from what they had first solicited from me. I have another market in mind, but they held it for right at a year! Sigh. Then I emailed six poems off to a magazine on January 2nd, and already on the 3rd I got rejections on them all. Sigh! Three of the pieces were ones that I'm particularly proud of. One I spent almost a month working on, and another had been accepted twice by different magazines that folded out from under it. I sent them out again right away, but felt for a bit that maybe there was no use. Sigh!!

Then about two hours ago I got an acceptance on a sort of prose poem short story that I'd submitted to Night To Dawn magazine. I felt good about that, but the experience reminded me of what I already knew and yet seem too often to forget. In a way, writing is like working with severely ill patients. You learn that you can't fall in love with such patients. If you do, your heart will break with theirs, and you'll die a little bit as they die. You give them what you can, what they need, but you have to remember to save yourself.

So, whatever you do, don't get emotionally involved with the submission/publication process. If you do then the highs will never compensate for the lows. Save your passion for the writing itself. Once the writing is done, submit it, but don't invest yourself in its acceptance or rejection. It's not personal. Any more.