Rejection #33 - Jocosa of the Earrings

When we left our heroine of the earrings she was waiting to hear back from Donald Maass about her submission. 


It turned out to be ...


Rejection #33.

Can anyone say crushed, shredded, pruned? But I didn’t cry, I keened. 
I couldn’t get passed the image of myself drowning in a mall of rejections. I’d never write again. I couldn’t even deal with e-mail. And why, oh, why had I agreed to blog about my journey to publication? So, with my creative tank in a dustbowl, I allowed my inner actress to mourn. Wrapped in a blanket on the sofa, with a cup of African Cream Arooibis tea in one hand and a dozen vegan zucchini muffins in the other, I watched Gossip Girl (for a month) until it was time to board the plane for the 2010 Surrey Conference. 

And now? I’m rewriting. Why? Because I can. And once again because I can--is one of the best mantras I’ve discovered on this road to publication.

Writing is a process. The more we do it the better we get. In the fall of 2010 Harlan Coben re-released his debut novel Playing Dead. In his forward he says, “If this is the first book of mine you’ve picked up stop now.” He’s an author of 20 books and continues to grow in the craft because he recognizes where he’s been and challenges himself to find better ways to keep us up all night. Go Coben.

Life would have been oh, so grand if Donald Maass had offered to be my agent. He’s an amazing advocate for his clients. And he is one of the best motivational instructors on craft around. His workshops are standing room only. But even though he passed on my last draft, he’s given me three gifts. 

1-In 2008 he gave a speech titled Storyteller or Attention Seeker. Yes, publication will be nice when it comes but it’s a bonus, right? Writers place the words on the page to discover the story that needs to be heard, first by the writer and then by an audience. The intrigue is in the story—the story is what keeps us coming back to the page. I love my story. I love my heroine. And I’m willing to be patient with the process in order to make them both marketable.

2-In 2009 he confirmed that the structure of my story works. And his interest provided the fuel I needed to plunge into what would be my sixth draft.

3-His rejection brought clarity. Intially—not so much. But armed with my rejection, I was able to attend the 2010 Surrey conference with an objective for my Blue Pencil sessions: please, tell me why an agent is going to pass. And the answers arrived in the one-on-one feedback sessions I received and the workshops that seemed geared specifically to my weaknesses as a writer. Destiny guides again.


The submission process is scary terrain. 

Rejection is harder. But when the tsunami of our angst settles, if we are the storytellers we hope we are, our rejections are the building blocks for the next draft, or new manuscript.

Onward and Upward.


I think Jocosa deserves a big round of blog applause for agreeing to share her story with us. And she's not done. The universe (and I) are not letting her off the hook for her vow. She will continue to write, rewrite and pursue publication and she will not cut her hair until then. 


Here's how hairy she is these days:

Not quite Sasquatch material! Oh, yeah, Jocosa will start her own blog soon. Stay tuned to Three Dead Moths ... and I'll provide a link when it's up.   


And remember dear bloggowers: