As an author of absolutely no repute whatsoever, I have a tendency to send out stories I have written to editors, agents, even magazines in an attempt to try and get published, or at the very least get representation. There comes a time when the writing of a particular article or story is finished (at least as far as I’m concerned) and the next step is to send it off. My finger (or the cursor) hesitates above the “send” button or above the “Enter” key, and the thought comes to mind “Just exactly what are they going to think when they receive this?” I’m sure this thought must have occurred to others, other authors, artists, musicians, anyone sending out something to be judged for its merit in whatever manner is appropriate for that work of art, i.e., publication, entry into a contest, display, performance, or whatnot. For that person that work took time. In my case a novel can take years, a short story of 3000 words may take several months of not only writing it but thinking about it, running it over and over in my brain: how should I word this sentence, should I say it this way or that, should I move this paragraph up or down, I need to do some research on the effect of [fill in the blank] on [fill in second blank]. For me, writing takes time, and I don’t send something off lightly. [Note in passing: no AI for me.]
Yet, eventually the time will come when I have to send the article or work off. And there are two general concepts that run through my brain at this somewhat apprehensive time. My feeling is either “They can’t ignore this: I put a lot of work into this thing, and it’s the best I can make it and they certainly aren’t going to refuse to publish this.” Or: “Okay, let’s see what they think about this thing.”
These are two are mutually exclusive thoughts; it’s either one or the other. I suppose these thoughts are a reflection of my attitude toward some phase of the writing life: writing, revising, publication, and especially about the particular work I’m sending out. I’ve been at it for over 20 years now, and I would naturally expect to be reasonably well-versed in most stages of the preparation of a story for publication by this time. But with my track record in getting published, (abysmal at best) I can’t simply assume that if I send something off that it will be published. But I go back and forth; sometimes I feel good about a particular work, and it certainly seems that the editor or publisher won’t reject this. They can’t reject it. It’s good; or more than that, it’s great. They should be falling all over themselves to send me a check.
Other times it’s “Oh well, here goes.”
It’s not that I ever send out stories that I haven’t put a lot of work into. Absolutely not. Everything I send out for publication is the best I can do. And rejections don’t sting that much anymore; I’m almost immune to them by now. It’s just that sometimes I’m less than excited about the chances of certain stories being published. It may be that a story is unusual in some respect. Different from what I usually write, or different from what a certain journal or publisher normally accepts. These are not reasons for not sending it out, by no means. But perhaps reality sets in and I realize that sometimes a story may not work for someone or some journal, but might work in a different venue.
How about you? What do you think when you send a work of art into the world to be judged?