How does a writer really know when his/her writing is publishable when every single opinion offered on the work is subjective?
And the answer, I guess, is: WE NEVER KNOW.
So many say that it takes practice and skill and years of determination to hone your craft, before your work is publishable. But does it? Really? When simply being in the right place at the right time might mean your work really 'clicks' with someone and they want to publish it?
Of course, a writer needs talent for this to happen, so yes, honing one's craft is important, but it sure puts writers on edge (writers like myself), and makes them question their work when something they've revised over and over gets rejected over and over, but something they wrote in five minutes and was never touched again gets published. Also, when something they've written makes someone cry, but the next reader fobs it off as 'not original enough.' How the hell is a writer supposed to know who to trust? And how do you learn to trust your own instincts when they're tainted by opposing reactions?
Perhaps you're hoping for answers to these questions, but unfortunately I can't give them to you because I need them answered for myself. I guess all we can do is, at least give our instincts the benefit of the doubt, keep submitting and submitting and submitting in the hope that our work will 'click' with someone. So don't waste time. Just submit your work. EVERYWHERE. Don't waste another second, because you never know when you might hit an editor's chord, and you don't want to miss that chance!
How about you? How do you know when something is ready to submit?
Great advice. Submit. All writing really is subjective to the reader. True, one must have talent and continually hone the craft. But there is a sort of 'luck' and 'timing' that seems to be present in a writer's success. Believe...
ReplyDeleteGreat advice. I hesitated about submitting to a poetry competition a couple of years ago. Not really sure if I had the right fit for the title range. I took the bull by the horns and submitted anyway. I won! The editor said it was just what she was looking for, it hit home.
ReplyDeleteSo I am with you, Jessica. Go for it, submit and try, we never really know the answer.
Great advice. I hesitated about submitting to a poetry competition a couple of years ago. Not really sure if I had the right fit for the title range. I took the bull by the horns and submitted anyway. I won! The editor said it was just what she was looking for, it hit home.
ReplyDeleteSo I am with you, Jessica. Go for it, submit and try, we never really know the answer.
Success and talent are not synonomous. They never were but even less so today when all emphasis is on what sells, not what is good. Brilliant writing will be rejected and bad writing accepted and sell like hot cakes. Unless someone wants to publish your work there is not much point listening to their rejections. I also think there is a lot of luck, or fate... astrology shows that. Just as there are countless people in the world with fabulous voices, only a few will really succeed and the same applies to any skill, gift or art. Enjoy the process is the only mantra which you can ever live by or gaurantee for yourself.
ReplyDeleteWhen I've done all I can. And yes, I think over editing can damage our work and edit out the raw voice as we try to follow too many rules. But I agree - it so subjective - writers have to keep submitting if they believe in a project.
ReplyDeleteLet's also remember the super-successful books that were rejected over and over. Harry Potter was "fobed on" by all the big publishers before Rowling put Scholastic on the map, and revolutionized the industry, and got a whole generation into reading fiction! (I seriously think Rowling should get a Nobel Prize for the latter.)
ReplyDeleteI've had a story rejected by one publication and without any changes accepted by another. It is so subjective.
ReplyDeleteTherefore I suggest, it's best to trust yourself, take the advice of those whom you trust about possible changes or improvements and keep on submitting.
No one responds to writing objectively no matter how hard they try. Writing requires a subject – it’s an experiment, every piece of writing no matter who wrote it is only an experiment – and that subject is exposed to a block of writing and he or she will respond in a limited number of ways. There is no way to predict how they will react because they brings the second part of the equation and it may well be what they bring isn’t enough or it might be exactly what the piece needs. You never know. I am constantly amazed when people pick a favourite poem because it’s never one of (what I think are) my truly great poems. In some cases it’s even poems that I don’t care for very much anymore now that I get to look at them in the cold light of day. As far as knowing when something is ready for submission the only real answer I have there is that that’s something that comes with experience, a degree of objectivity. I find it helps to not be in too much of a rush to send anything out because most of us when asked with list our favourite pieces of writing as the ones we’ve just finished.
ReplyDeleteI think you've brought an amazing point to the table. As writers this is where your gut comes into play. When you feel the timing is right you go for it. If you're rejected one too many times for your taste you go back to the drawing board.
ReplyDeleteI guess that's why they say being a writer is a roller coaster of emotions, it's a bi-polar world. One minute you're up, the other you're down. The whole process will rock your world and when you've passed the painful parts you'll forget about them until they arrive again.
I guess the point is, you know when it's right for you, now you're just waiting for the others to believe.
Being ready for me wasn't so much a matter of confidence. It was just the point when desire outweighed fear. Great post :)
ReplyDeleteI have a very scientific approach. I measure the number of words in the first 50 pages and weigh it against the verbiosity of the query letter...
ReplyDeletemade that up. Could you tell?
I pretty much go w/my gut. And get kicked there often. :D <3 U--hang in there, honey~
I think the only true way to know is to go with your gut- make sure its polished and if it is rejected try one or two more venues- and if still nothing- revise and resubmit.
ReplyDeleteGood advice. Submitting our work is not an exact science where every numbered step ensures acceptance. I agree with your thoughts on submitting. A good and polished work will find a home eventually.
ReplyDeleteI know something is ready to submit when I've read it over and over,had it critiqued, revised, shelved for a while and then it sounds pretty decent (plus by that time, I'm sick of it...so I know it's ready). =)
ReplyDeleteit's always easier for me to know with short fiction than with novels. For shorts, it's when i've edited it almost to death and i can't think of any way to make it better
ReplyDeleteSo true! Personally, I find comfort knowing even the most celebrated authors have their work rejected. It comes down to submitting to the right editor at the right moment in time. The hard part is shrugging off the sting of each rejection. I've found it gets easier! But it's still tough. In closing, I agree with you: submit, submit, submit!
ReplyDeleteYou have to write well, but your work also has to connect with the right editor -- the one who woke up on the right side of the bed and who has some knowledge or experience that will allow your work to resonate with him or her.
ReplyDeleteYears ago I submitted the stupidest poem to a well known literary journal that is difficult to get published in, and the editor thought it was hilarious. She published it, and all my writer friends were livid. They had worked so hard on their poems, and here I wrote some stupid one-liner that made someone laugh, and it got an entire page dedicated to it. I totally understood my friends' irritation.
It really is so subjective, and I don't know if you can ever really know. I've had some stories accepted and others that I think are better written not. It doesn't make much sense, but I think you have to read, write, and learn as much as you can. Re-evaluate work that has been rejected and submit again. Make the piece the strongest you can make it and send it out into the world. There will always be rejections, but there are acceptances too. :)
ReplyDeletehi miss jessica! you cant never know what someones gonna like so you just gotta keep on trying. but for sure if you know someone just eats veggies dont sent a meat and potato book to that person.
ReplyDelete...hugs from lenny
I <3 this post. So hard to figure it all out! *sigh* Wading through opposing views with you.
ReplyDeleteJessica,
ReplyDeleteI don't think anything is every really 100% ready and the proof of that is the edits my publisher sends back for me to do. However, when I start getting sick of reading my work, and I start putting back commas I took out last time, then it's time to let it go.
As it's been said, writing is a subjective business, and while there's certainly nothing wrong with making a story or poem tighter, you just can't foresee a "yes" in this market. You are a good writer, so trust your instinct. Keep sending those poems out!
ReplyDeleteWriting is art and art is subjective.
ReplyDeleteWhen I've done all I can and as close to perfect as I can make it AND I'm sick of it, I think it's really close to ready...
Crap, I'm so green at this I just submit and pray all in the same motion :)
ReplyDeleteJules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow
Oh my, yes, it is all so subjective. I think there is a time when we paint or write or whatever when we just know. Of course then we send it to betas or editors who beg to differ. Really tough subject.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, that pic made me roar.
ReplyDeleteThan to the question. I am not one of those writers who started writing before they could walk. I went to college, got a degree, spent 10+ years in the military, work as a case manager with individuals affected by HIV and AIDS, and one day I wrote a short urban fantasy (my first) and sent it to a contest.
I knew it was ready, and it seems I was write because it won't. A couple of years ago I won a creative writing scholarship. I'm back as school full time and writing. I finished the first draft of my first MS last year. One of my professors, who happens to be an editor, told me I should send my work out that it was ready. I felt elated, I won't lie, but I'm holding a little longer because I know I can do a little better. I'll searching for an agent at the end of this year--I know I and my MS will be ready then.
Wow! I've just committed serious comment-jacking. It was not my intention, but the question was so thought provoking ;-)
Good points, Jessica. And good advice. Don't limit the number of submissions or to where they'll be sent. You don't ever know who might be reading them. All very subjective!
ReplyDeleteI think you hit on it very well. There are so many factors that can enter in on how something received by someone else. You just got to catch that right person in the right hour of the right day. You never know so you keep on submitting until it get accepted or until you get enough detailed enlightening critique that convinces you that it was crap--then you just have to start over.
ReplyDeleteLee
Tossing It Out
I just decided it was ready when I couldn't stomach the thought of another edit.
ReplyDeleteGreat post hun!
I like to use Stephen King's advice with this one. He says that if you get one opinion that agrees with you and one that opposes, you're the tiebreaker.
ReplyDeleteAnd...there's no right answer. LOL!
I guess if you feel you can't trust your instincts, trust those around you who's opinions you trust. Not those who will tell you what you want to hear but who honestly want you to improve.
Good luck!
Hi Jessica. I've been writing (or at least trying) for most of my life, still getting my feet wet at this editing thing. Both are entirely subjective. Any editor- be it of a nobudget online zine like Ramshackle, or Paris Review- who says differently is kidding themselves. When it comes to personal creative work of any kind, mostly what we bring to it is our own take. Mine is changeable, untrustworthy, all the usual, but as a writer, artist, editor etc it's most of what I've got to work with and offer.
ReplyDeleteLike most of us, I wonder often why work I consider my best is repeatedly rejected. Time and distance lend useful perspective, and sometimes weaknesses (and utter failings :) I hadn't noted become apparent. Other times, I say you know what? Screw that,
this is good. If so and so and so won't run it, I'll find an editor who likes it better, and we'll get this out there somewhere else. Because really, that's all it comes down to- Some editor likes it, or they don't. Sometimes for reasons I agree with when they're pointed out, sometimes not.
I've had one opportunity to work with a great fiction editor (Kevin at Word Riot) whose input benefitted my work greatly, and has ever since. But you (I, we, all of us) have to balance being open to considering others' takes
with the confidence to trust our own. There are times for both.
Sorry I've not been able to better articulate what I'm most interested in running in RR.
Hopefully the last note was of some use.
I'm glad you got your guitar back, Jessica. All best.
Mark
When I'm changing one small word here and there. That means it's ready.
ReplyDeleteBUT on the whole opposing feedback thing - within two days, I got letters from two agents who (after reading) declined each citing my strengths as opposite the other and each citing my weaknesses opposite the other... sigh...