I recently received my first rejection letter. Email, to tell the truth. It wasn’t for my novel or screenplay; their first rejections lie months or more in the future. No, this was for five ultra-short mystery stories I wrote for the Mystery Writers of America, Rocky Mountain chapter’s 6-word mystery contest.
These five short-short-short mysteries represented at least thirty minutes of hard work, about the same time it takes Steven King to write a (not rejected) novella. It might have taken me just a half an hour to craft those five stories, but I was surprisingly invested in the outcome of the contest. I sent them off in the first week of September and got the confirmation mail. I re-read them and compared them against last year’s winners, and I thought my odds were pretty good (I guess I’m an optimistic writer).
True, last years winners and finalists tended more toward the punny side, whereas mine were “straight” stories, but it’s not a humor or wordplay contest, it’s a story contest, right?
Just thirty minutes invested to write them, but I kept checking my email hoping–expecting!–to see an invitation to the Finalists dinner. Did I mention I’m an optimist? Then, in early November it came–not the invitation, but a flat rejection.
“Thank you for your entry into our 5th annual Six-Word Mystery Contest sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Chapter, Mystery Writers of America.
“We’re sorry to inform you that our panel of VIP judges did not select your entry or entries as a finalist. The contest generated well over 346 entries this year from 20 states and five entries from four foreign countries. All in all, the entries were great fun and very clever. They brought us lots of laughs, some raised eyebrows, and many good-hearted groans.“
Laughs. Groans.
Okay, so…not even a finalist. But that’s not really what this post is (entirely) about. I can’t imagine what it’s like to pour months and years into a book, or screenplay, or any work of art, and then wait. And wait. And wait. And then, finally, get a “no thanks”. I have so much admiration for the successful authors we all read about who get tens or hundreds of rejections, only to break through and make it. I guess they must have been optimistic, too.
Time to wrap up. Here’s one last story:
Entries submitted. Checking email daily…rejected.
Maybe I should take up Haiku.
Nah, I’ll be back next year, Rocky Mountain.
You can read my 2021 entries on my Six-word Mysteries page. Let me know what you think in Comments, or drop me an email via my Contact page. I’ll post links to the winners and finalists next week after they’ve been announced.
