Thursday, September 13: Femme Fatale
CHALLENGES
by Deborah Elliott-Upton
Sunday, September 16, begins the week I am the featured writer for the Bylines 2007 Writer’s Desk Calendar. The wire bound calendar is touted as “The Essential Weekly Planner For Writers,” but it works just as well for readers who like to know more about writers.
An essay accompanies a photo for each of the 53 writers featured in the calendar. Bylines hopes to instill inspiration and encouragement while discussing goal planning, marketing tips and sharing listings of Pulitzer Prize winners for fiction and poetry, Nobel Prize for Literature winners and literary holidays to celebrate. (Trivia Fact: The following writers share birth dates next week: Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the 18th; Upton Sinclair (1878-1968), the 20th; and Stephen King (1947- ), the 21st.)
My essay details when I received a note scribbled across the top of a contest entry early in my writing career. The judge wrote, “Find something else to do with your time.”
In the words of the immortal Bart Simpson, “Whoa, Baby! ”
I can’t imagine why a judge would write something so harsh. I admit this particular story receives either accolades or condemnations. There is absolutely no middle of the road reactions. One woman in my critique group at the time said nothing when we discussed the story, but she wrote on my manuscript: I can’t imagine why a woman could write something so awful to happen to another woman in a story. I counted her response as good since it certainly evoked strong emotions in six short pages. I am sure she wasn’t pleased at the writers who were eagerly telling me what a great story I had written. Anyone writing anything needs to understand that opinions vary according the reader’s background and may or may not be valuable to you as the author. Interpretation is the marrow of both great and really awful writing. That’s why we don’t all read the same genre or enjoy the same authors.
The story, “The Box,” is definitely in the horror classification, probably best suited for something the Crypt Keeper would share, but finding a market for it has not been easy. It’s more of a soft-core horror story.
When someone likes your writing, it feels good. But, sometimes, I believe we learn more from the negative reactions. The contest judge could have turned another writer away from writing, but to me, it was more of a dare. I decided to prove her wrong.
I kept writing, attending conferences and entering contests and submitting my work. Honing my craft, I wrote, rewrote and rewrote again.
What a sweet victory when a few years later, my book took first place in the contest where the judge had snubbed my work. That particular judge does not know my personal victory over her comments. It doesn’t matter. The important thing was my growing because of her words. Without realizing, she’d thrown down a gauntlet I could not refuse.
I am reminded of how often I have been challenged by a writer’s words and how I have changed because of them.
The bell tolls for me.
Holden Caulfield, I feel your angst.
Maya Angalou touches my soul.
Those that come before us set the pace. It is up to us to embrace the challenge and become the best we can be as writers, readers and human beings.
The teachers of both Edison and Einstein thought the boys were dunces.
I understand the gauntlet, that sometimes the easiest way to get me to do something was to tell me it couldn’t be done. You hooked us, Deborah, and by the end of your article, we were cheering that you won out over her personal (and unprofessional) comments.
Great article and a great example for perserverence for the writer.
I saw actor Emilio Estevez interviewed on t.v. about 15 years ago, quoting advice he’d been given by an esteemed actor (whose name I CAN’T remember!!!!!) that the trick is not to ignore the bad reviews, the trick is to ignore the good reviews. And a bad comment on a rejection I got a while back had the effect of making me realize “Waitaminute! They really did read this!”
I heard that J.K. Rolwing was rejected by 7 (SEVEN!) editors before the first Harry Potter was accepted. Now, she’s a billionaire. If there’s not hope in that, I don’t know where!
(And I love Holden Caulfield!!) :]]
It’s sad that so much rejection reaches all our lives. It’s learning to interpret where it came from and deciding if it is of benefit to you that makes all the difference. Learning from experiences means the experience was worth our time. And yes, Jeff! They did read it! What a wonderful way to look at this. Thanks for sharing!
I think tenacity is the number one thing a writer must have. I good kick int he teeth will either send you off into hiding or make you mad enough to stand up and fight. Glad you chose the latter.
I, too, am glad you kept writing and that you choose to encourage the rest of us.
I liked the time you answered to the statement, “I think I’ll quit writing” with “if you can do, if you can’t, you’re a writer” – I think it’s the same thing as knowing that we must write – no matter who says what, we write because we have to write.
I prefer not to think of writing as an obsession or an addiction. I define it — it does not define me. It’s not like I’m channeling a four-thousand-year-old alien and have no choice over what comes popping out of my mouth while in a trance. One of the things I enjoy about storytelling is the fact of complete creative control. It is not a response to some lemming-like urge, but rather testimony to my powers of choice.
I also do not believe that tenacity is the most important quality for a writer to have. I think that talent is. Yes, it’s important not to invest so much of your ego in your work that rejection stings so badly you have to retire for eternity — but sometimes being tenacious is just a symptom of the absence of critical judgment, which is an essential element of being creative. You can’t argue with talent, though.
I do not bring up these points to be a wet blanket, nor to discourage anybody from following his muse. The judge who wrote, “Find something else to do with your time” was rude, condescending, and unworthy, a prime exponent of Warren’s First Law. (Criticism says more about the critic than it does about the work being criticized.) What each of us does with our own time is up to us and not some snotty know-it-all. I’ve certainly read stories that were utterly unpublishable by people who yearn to have their work appreciated and probably never will. But I’ve never told them they’re wasting their time. They’re probably getting more from writing than they ever will from me.