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Reasons for Rejections Most of the stories we rejected
over the years have had one or more of the
following problems:
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No hook at the beginning. It's your
job, as writer, to grab your reader's attention right up front and
not let go until the final line of the story. If you haven't
caught our attention by the third paragraph, we're not going to read
any further.
-
Failed suspension of belief. It's
also your job as writer to give us cause to suspend our disbelief.
Douglas Adams, for example, got us to accept the most ridiculous,
impossible things, and we did it gladly. You too must
accomplish this.
-
Lack of empathy for characters. Your
readers have to care about your characters, or at least have a
strong vested interest in seeing them die horribly. One or the
other. If not, the mind wanders, the story gets put down, and
the TV goes on.
-
Bad story arc. Your story must have
a beginning, middle, and end. A story requires a
problem and a resolution. The resolution must come somehow --
directly or indirectly -- from the actions of the protagonist.
-
Broken story arc.
The story ending needs to match the beginning. In other words,
if it starts out a love story, it has to end a love story. If
it starts out a quest, it has to end a quest. Etc.
-
Basic lack of writing skill.
Raymond Chandler used to tell aspiring writers that they have a
million words of crap to get out of their system. Alas, some
say it's actually more like two million.
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Good but not good
enough. We liked it but not enough to shell out money for
it. This happens a lot. If, maybe, more people clicked
on the ads, we'd have more money for more stories.
Remember that even Stephen King collected a huge pile of rejection slips
while he was learning the craft. Just because we don't like a
particular story doesn't mean someone else won't like it. It also
doesn't mean we won't like your next story.
Never take it personally. If you are to become a
professional writer, this must be your mantra. The road you've
chosen is a gauntlet of rejection that you must endeavor to ignore, and
continue traveling.
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