Rejection City

I've been getting rejected a lot lately. Which isn't surprising, seeing as how I've just gotten back on track for sending out my romantic comedy manuscript. Ergo, more submissions = more rejections.

This doesn't particularly bother me. I've been preached to by friends, workshop presenters, and writing books alike how rejection is part of writing. Get used to it. I don't take it personally, and all I need is one acceptance, right?

I thought I was getting closer to that acceptance a few weeks ago, when an agent requested the full manuscript for the very first time. Maybe this would be it!

But of course, since today's topic is rejection, obviously it didn't pan out. And I'm okay with that. The only part about it that bothers me is the agency promised to give detailed feedback on why a manuscript was rejected, if they had requested the full version (which they had). Instead, I just got the usual, one-paragraph "Thanks but no thanks, and best of luck."

Writers love feedback. Good, bad, or ugly, we want to hear that our work is being read. Plus, I think I'm pretty bad at viewing my work objectively. Usually I think it's wonderful or it's terrible, when it's probably somewhere in-between. After spending so much time creating a piece, I often can't really tell if it's good or bad. Or, if it goes wrong, what's causing that. Character development? Pace? Dialogue? Too many damn unnecessary and wasteful adjectives? I don't know!!

So, even if I got rejected by this agency, I was looking forward to getting some unbiased, professional feedback. I'm pestering them now; hopefully the feedback is worth it!