Midweek Notes from a Practicing Writer

Three quick things.

1. I’m not going to lie: It’s feeling chaotic here at Practicing Writing HQ. It’s seeming as though I am richocheting from one task to another and back again. Most of what I’m working on is very behind-the-scenes at the moment, and every project seems to have a gazillion never-ending components (several of them tech-oriented, which, for me, means additional challenges), and it’s all requiring a lot of time and close attention. When I try to explain the nuts-and-bolts of what’s going on these days (as I did on Monday, during a lunch break with another writer who traveled up to my neighborhood because I am refusing to make many plans that add commuting time to time already “taken away” from my various projects), I don’t even sound coherent to myself. It’s disconcerting.

2. In the middle of all that: I received one very lovely rejection note a few days ago, for a handful of poems that I’d sent in for a journal’s themed issue. One element of the rejection that made it so happily memorable was a mention that one of the poems—oddly, to me, not the one I would have most expected—”was kept longer for rereading as we really admired it; thanks also for your patience during the reading process.” Anytime, Magma Poetry! Thank you!

3. As encouraging as it is to receive a nice rejection, ultimately, that’s still a rejection. Hoping for a better outcome for another poem I sent out over the weekend. It’s somewhat time-sensitive for the purposes of the website that I’ve sent it to, so I should know something relatively soon.

6 thoughts on “Midweek Notes from a Practicing Writer

  1. Erika Dreifus says:

    Well, what do you know? I finished drafting this post late last night and scheduled it to publish this morning, and when I logged on today there was an acceptance waiting for the poem referenced in #3. (Morning came earlier for the Israel-based website where it will appear.) I should be able to share it with you in early August!

  2. Lorraine Cregar says:

    I too recently received a rejection letter similar to yours. They said my poem “touched them” and offered to read it again in the future. As it was maybe my third submission ever, I was quite pleased.

    1. Erika Dreifus says:

      That’s wonderful!

  3. Linda Simone says:

    Good morning, Erika! Congratulations on getting the poem accepted for publication. Just want to share that over the decades that I’ve been submitting poetry, I made a promise to myself never to say the word “rejection” (sounds too personal), but rather refer to such experiences as “returns” that have not yet found the right home. I’ve also had some lovely “returns” and they do lessen the sting quite a bit. Write on!

    1. Erika Dreifus says:

      I like that! Thank you!

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