How does a working writer weather rejection, whether it is
delivered as work declined or negative criticism?
The Steiny Road Poet offers a story which does not
sufficiently cover everything asked but points at something that is possibly
helpful.
The year Ronald Reagan was elected president of the United
States, Steiny was working for the Department of Energy in the office of the Special
Counsel Paul Bloom who had been tasked by Carter’s administration to audit the
major petroleum producers to determine how much we consumers had been
overcharged at the pump and in other petroleum markets. Being angry that no
money had been returned to the public, Bloom decided to give $1000 each to four
separate charities which in turn enraged Reagan’s people. So Steiny’s office
was unilaterally handed reduction in force (RIF) notices, meaning she (and her
colleagues) were fired.
When Steiny reached home that evening, her telephone rang
and a voice on the other said, “Congratulations—you have won the Billee Murray
Denny award. “Really?” Steiny responded in a weary somewhat skeptical voice.
The man paused and then said in a rather disgusted angry way, “You aren’t even
excited and you wouldn’t have won except one of the judges had just returned
from Australia and your poem mentions Australia.”
So here’s a story of acceptance that turns into a rebuke.
Did the Steiny Road Poet then doubt the worthiness of her poem, which by the
way was titled, “Bearing Up”? No. The reason was that Steiny had previously
sent this poem in an earlier version to a Virginia poetry society contest and
they had generously given her feedback which she used to improve the poem.
The lesson learned that day may prove serendipitous but is
possibly this—if you send out your work to be judged, be sure you have made
every effort to make it your best.
One other tidbit of advice Steiny got from the multi-genre
writer Richard Elman is this—not everyone can speak to what you are writing and
therefore should not be listened to. More on this in another post.
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