By Rae Pagliarulo

This yr, I utilized to extra writing alternatives than I’ve shortly, having been in restoration from a self-induced (or cosmically induced) writing droop. For the previous couple of years, I had been too busy grieving, therapeutic, and remaking myself to put in writing or submit. It was needed, worthwhile time I wanted to get previous some devastating stuff, however regardless of persevering with to learn and edit, not writing made me really feel like a fraud. It felt wonderful to place myself on the market once more.

With a very robust and compelling essay from my memoir in progress, I utilized to a prestigious residency that may give me as much as 4 weeks to give attention to nothing however writing, two extremely aggressive week-long writing workshops that others have lauded as life altering, and a superb literary journal’s theme subject. This previous month, I heard from all 4.

Waitlist.

Waitlist.

Waitlist.

Shortlist.

Now, as somebody who believes in a higher unifying power (you’ll be able to name it a better energy for those who’d like), I are likely to search for patterns and classes in all the things. I’m all the time asking myself, What’s the universe attempting to show me proper now? So, I need to imagine that this sample of “shut, however no acceptance” is a lesson. I’m simply not solely certain what it’s.

To resolve this thriller, I considered a latest night I spent with two of my Hippocampus Journal colleagues, making selections about items in our submissions queue. Throughout a protracted night of deliberation, we agreed on which items have been prime for publication, and we create a listing of of notable essays – items that bought so shut, that though they didn’t hit the mark, they deserved massive kudos. Perhaps these essays might assist me determine what I have to do subsequent. So, I requested myself – what have been the dynamics inside each bit that made it shut, however not fairly sufficient?

Dynamic 1: Deeper Layers of Which means

There are occasions once I’m studying an article, and I can really feel the author transferring into deeper layers of which means inside the piece— then, proper when it will get good, they cease brief. It’s powerful as an editor to see the emotional potential of an article, to know that with just a bit extra reflection and time the piece might have gone from nicely written to heart-wrenching. Maybe in my case, I had made it by 70% of my essay’s emotional depth however stopped brief earlier than I made any really weak or significant discoveries. So, my first homework task is obvious – discover the house and time to actually sit with the essay and press deeper into the softest spots I can discover. I should be keen to go deeper into locations that make me uncomfortable.

Dynamic 2: Mishandling the Touchdown

Extra occasions than I can depend, I’ve learn essays that finish too quickly or too late. This may be particularly prevalent in flash and micro essays, since you don’t have a ton of actual property to let a considerate ending evolve. However at any size, it may be troublesome to craft an ending that feels related and acceptable for an essay. After I’m studying contest submissions, it’s not uncommon for me to say, “With out that final graf, that is good,” or “Only one extra good line and this could be a slam dunk.” So, maybe my subsequent homework task is to research the previous couple of pages of my essay and search for different “endings” that may really feel extra proper. Perhaps I’m hanging on too lengthy, beleaguering the purpose, and possibly I’m skipping out too early. 

Dynamic 3: Content material Stronger than Craft

Typically I learn an essay that’s tackling an thought or state of affairs or relationship that I haven’t seen earlier than—and in a world stuffed with repeating human themes, that is thrilling, as a result of it’s uncommon. This makes it particularly unhappy when the craft of the piece simply isn’t there but. Most occasions, the writing isn’t dangerous, however there’s a degree of semantic sophistication and polish that I’m nonetheless craving for from an editorial perspective. And when an article is working nicely from a narrative angle, it may be tempting to depart the phrases proper the place they’re. Homework task quantity three—take a magnifying glass to my sentences and paragraphs and search for locations the place I can spruce up the language or development in order that issues begin to shine.

Dynamic 4: Powerful Competitors

Typically, the competitors is so fierce that even really fantastic writing doesn’t make the lower. I’ve seen it on American Idol 100 occasions—probably the most unimaginable contestant who kills each track may not make it previous the third spherical. They aren’t pitchy, they choose the correct songs, and their outfits are superior, however the different singers have in some way raised the bar, and this killer artist finally ends up going residence. That is the hardest dynamic for me to acknowledge, as a result of I can’t blame it alone fallibility. Maybe my essay was extremely robust, however the different entries have been simply stronger. Maybe I did all the things proper, and in one other cohort of candidates, the identical precise submission would have received.

So, what’s the massive takeaway from all this? As a really supportive good friend stated, “Perhaps the message is simply that. WAIT! As a result of good issues are coming.” Maybe the actual lesson for me is to search out as a lot endurance as I can, to belief the method, and to imagine that if I proceed placing writing I’m pleased with into the world, the world will reply accordingly. Sure, I’ll nonetheless take all my homework assignments to coronary heart, and I’ll spend extra time with the essay that bought me near a handful of fantastic issues. However I’ll even be grateful that the essay bought me as shut because it did, and as an alternative of issuing a refrain of no’s, the universe informed me to hold on. Good issues are coming.
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Rae Pagliarulo (she/her) is the affiliate editor of Hippocampus Journal and has printed poems, articles, and essays with Brief Reads, Cleaver Journal, the Brevity Weblog, and extra. She is the co-editor of Attending to the Reality: The Craft and Follow of Inventive Nonfiction (2021), and by day, she runs a consultancy known as Ellipsis Methods, serving to Philadelphia nonprofits to realize their missions by technique and fundraising.

Tagged: Hippocampus, literary rejection, revision methods