A writer. Officially.

So yesterday I got my first rejection letter, via email (oh, how the times have changed). With this carefully worded form-letter rejection, I would like to announce that I’ve grasped the magic sword (or poisoned chalice) and I have anointed myself ‘writer’. Officially.

Curious about what a rejection letter looks like? Here’s the first specimen (of many, no doubt) that I will put under the microscope for your perusal:

Thank-you for submitting to Short and Twisted. Unfortunately, your submission Alley Cat has not been selected for publication in this issue.
We received 504 submissions of stories, poems and images, of which only 62 were selected for publication. The quality of submissions was high and successful submissions not only had a twist at the end, they were also considered to have demonstrated an original or unusual theme. Unfortunately, it is impossible to include as many as we would have liked, and we strongly encourage you to resubmit for future issues.
Due to the large numbers of submissions, we are unable to provide individual feedback, however a submission would have been unsuccessful for one of the following reasons:
·         similar theme to other submissions
·         predictable ending compared to other submissions
·         grammar, punctuation or spelling was not of publishable standard
·         exceeded word limit
·         there was no twist
 
Once again, thank-you for your interest.
 
 
Kathryn Duncan
Editor

Short and Twisted

Quite polite. To be honest, I’m not sure which bullet point of rejection my story was slain under–probably ‘similar theme’, since it appears, as my dear friend KC advised me (only this morning!), that perhaps my story was a “twice told tale”–but it doesn’t really matter. I figure you can’t really consider yourself a writer until you’ve been rejected. 

So while I did take a brief moment to wallow in self-pity/question my talent/psychoanalyse myself , I soon realised that actually this rejection is pretty cool.

My writing is out in the world. Cool.

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