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I'm reading City Lights - A Street Life, the autobiography of Keith Waterhouse and I thought the phrasing he uses for the inevitible return of that manuscript is quite funny and probably familiar to most of us. He says of his manuscripts,
I had read enough writers' reminiscences to know that in the early days rejected stories regularly "came home to roost" or "landed with a dull thud on the doormat"; being of their number was like belonging to a club.
And
...not even bothering to resubmit those manuscripts that, as the writers' reminiscences would have put it, "winged their way back like homing pigeons".
Very well put and also an encouragement to us all for he didn't fare too badly out of the writing lark :)
Comments
I did feel a bit disheartened and for a moment wondered whether I was wasting my time 'playing' at writing but, sensibly, know that it was highly unlikely that my first short story would be accepted. I'm holding on to what I read recently about Stephen King wallpapering his room with rejection slips. If I never get beyond that stage, then I'll start to feel unpublishable. At the moment, I probably need to keep going. I'm not sure what to do with my rejected story now. On reflection, it was probably a bit too sentimental for WW. Never mind.
Then I consider what needs to be done with it.
I had a recent acceptance from Take a Break that was a WW rejection and many others that have gone on to be published elsewhere after WW didn't want them.
It's always depressing, but once you've finished your wine and chocolate or equivalent anaesthetics (which are compulsory!), do as dorothy says, look at womag's blog (details in Useful Threads sticky) and get it sent back out.
Good luck!
The only specific feedback you ever get from TaB is an acceptance or a request for a slight rewrite - as far as I'm aware, anyway, and I've had dozens of the exact same 'no thanks' letter in my time. There was a yellow sticky left on my manuscript once with a few scribbled comments, but that was clearly a note between editors left there in error.
Wonder what the standard rejection letters are for the other magazines?
Had you considered another of the womags? 'sentimental' immediately makes me thing PF might take a version of it!
I sent them a story on 6th November and haven't heard anything yet. Is it still too early to chase - knowing how long they can take?!