100 Love Letters I'll Never Send (...learning about myself, life and my role in this life (a kind literary rejection letter from the past)

There is also such an emotional toll to the creative process. So many times I am emotionally connected and just finish what I am working on so I can move on to learn something else out about life, about myself, and my role in this life. 

Everyone says they are going to write a book. Who will read it though? 

After almost a decade, I am finally mature enough to realize that I let my foolish pride stand in the way of my success.  If I would have just edited and resubmitted 2 to 1 I probably could have had it published with a company.

Furthermore, in the past, I took rejection as a personal insult.Publishers might issue out rejection slips to separate who will continue, persevere, and who will quit. Thus those who continue, will get better providing something creative that is a sound business move.

There is also such an emotional toll to the creative process. So many times I am emotionally connected and just finish what I am working on, so I can move on to learn something else out about life, about myself, and my role in this life.

The letter:

Dear John - Thank you for letting us have a look at your story "2 to 1."  Several of us here have read it and discussed it.  We agree that it conveys a sense of horror through the gory details.  However, there are so many problems with grammar and basic writing mechanics that we can not use it.  The necessary editing - which would go well beyond correcting punctuation and grammar and would require re-writing of some passages - is too big a job for us to take on and not one that we are inclined to do anyway.  For your reference, I'll give you just a couple of examples, starting with the second "sentence":

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"It ain't where you're from it's where you're at." - This is not 1 sentence but 2 sentences run together.

"Sometimes theses phrases come to me in between death songs that play in my mind-radio jams, cassette tapes, CD's, music television-whatever it takes to inspire my death. It started out being really sad. Then the hobby came to reading the obituaries every morning. Then I began planning how to kill myself. But I just couldn't get the courage to do it."  - "Inspire" does not seem like quite the right word.  Neither does "came to."  What is the "it" that started out being sad?

"One morning something really strange happened. I woke up and I was a full time employee at the local morgue." - This is a crucial plot element.  It is the foundation upon which the story is built and yet, it is never explained and seems inexplicable.  You must give the reader some means to infer what is happening, even if the cause is fantastic.

"The gas truck driver tried to serve out of the way of the man. Ran off of the road into a ditch, flipped over a couple times and exploded creating a firewall of metal." - These "two sentences" are actually one complete sentence broken into two fragments.

"All the while I was yelling questions from across the room while he works on a grown up." - The tense of this sentence is not consistent ("was yelling" is past tense; "works" is present tense.)

"Burnt flesh has the strangest." - This is a sentence fragment.

"I am absolutely famished." He declares as he digs in his fridge as I'm scrutinizing his office. - The direct quotations are incorrectly punctuated.

**

Now, the so-called "rules" of grammar and the principles of stylistics can be bent to the breaking point.  Every author has poetic license and can write what and as he wishes.  The bending of normal grammatical usage in your narration could be interpreted as representing the quasi-grammatical oral speech of the narrator.  However, it is usually best to have and to demonstrate a firm grasp of the "rules" before breaking them.  Otherwise, the "poetic" prose is in danger of coming through like awkward or sloppy writing.

OK?

Bill

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Bill Bowler, Coordinating Editor

Bewildering Stories