You may recall me mentioning that I’d had a haiku accepted for publication two weeks ago.
You should do, I mentioned it enough.
I then sent a few off to another magazine. I thought several of them were better than the one that had been accepted, so I was quietly confident about getting another one accepted.
Unfortunately, I didn’t.
That happens, and alongside the quiet confidence I always try to keep a sense of reality. After all, if it was easy everyone would do it.
Anyway, not only did I get rejected, I was advised by the editor not to be downhearted because competion made it tough to get into the magazine.
I could live with that.
It was the next bit that twisted the knife. He advised me to read the magazine and write something suitable. Well, thanks to the internet I had been reading the magazine and I had thought that I’d submitted something suitable.
Apparantly not. Apparantly I had completely missed the point.
So I entered a deep depression and started an internal monologue telling me I was rubbish and should give up. This was possibly an over-reaction but we can’t all be well-balanced.
It was made worse by the realisation that I had set the bar high. Possibly too high. Stretching yourself is one thing, but arrogantly setting out to target the top magazines is embarrassing when it doesn’t work.
Rather than prolong the agony, I will just tell you that everything is fine now. I have read some articles about how to write better haiku, including some written by people who don’t know. Some of them even admit they don’t know. Some of them don’t admit it, but their haiku examples show it.
That’s the trouble with the internet – lots of words and lots of people who really should be disconnected.
I’ve actually written a couple of haiku that are probably better than the ones I had rejected, so it’s been a positive experience.
I’ve also had an email telling me I have just had two haibun accepted. Not just one, but two. And I had a pleasant note from the editor, which restored my faith in editors.
Looks like I may be on the right track after all.
Congratulations, Simon!
🙂 It’s bound to come unravelled after a good start…
I hope not 🙂
🙂
Congratulations!
Thank you.
Any attention whatsoever from editors is quite a lovely thing. You are for sure up there in the ranks already. Bravo!! Keep it up!
I’m going to try. I was doing OK last time I did a bit of dabbling but I let it slip.
Persistence!
The world is now your oyster. I am proud to be an internet acquaintance of a man who has had two haibuns accepted. I doff my cap to you.
That’s very kind, but you might want to postpone the doffing until I get a couple more accepted. The first two might just be a fluke.
The writing life is like that! Up and down. Congrats on the poems that were accepted, and try not to worry about the one that wasn’t. It’s a very subjective process. Try submitting it somewhere else.
I just keep reminding myself that a former winner of the National Poetry Competition won it with a poem that had been rejected by 13 magazines. 🙂
Yup. Always stings to be rejected, but keep on submitting.
Yes, I’m going to keep it going this time.
Good!
🙂
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