Don’t rewrite to be accepted

Sometimes, rewriting is NOT a good idea. Here is why

Woman Writing (Sonia Gramatté) (1922) by Walter Gramatté

In the previous letter I wrote about rewriting, and how it can be a good idea to revisit a old piece of writing, and make something new out of it. But are there any cases where rewriting is NOT a good idea? That’s our topic for today.

You get used to it, but it’s never easy. You send your work out into the world, filled with hopes: your writing will finally be seen and appreciated.

And then comes that infamous rejection letter.

Thanks so much for considering our publication... We receive lots of great stories, but... We appreciated reading this... Unfortunately... Not a fit.

Ouch.

Rejection letters tend to be very vague. They fail to answer a important question: why. So the mind tries to fill the gap. Usually in the form of a bully voice in your head.

Every time a rejection letter comes around, that little voice tells you that something must’ve been wrong with your writing. It isn’t good enough. It needs to be fixed.

In a impulse, you want to go back to your story and change it completely, so it fits whatever standard a certain publication has.

Been there. Done that.

But the worst possible moment for rewriting anything is right after a rejection.

Why?

Well, first let’s debunk something: being rejected doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong with your writing.

I’ve been at both sides: as writer, sending my fiction to lit mags, and as an editor for the audiozine Razzle Dazzle Cafe, where I have to reject other people's work.

And unfortunately, since the zine is only a side gig and having in mind that sending feedback for every submission we receive would be impossible, from time to time I have to be that person who sends vague rejection letters. (You die a hero or live to see yourself become the villain, right?)

It's never fun to reject or be rejected.

But working as an editor opened my eyes to something obvious: sometimes, rejection has nothing to do with writing quality.

At Razzle Dazzle Cafe, we sometimes receive great stories that simply don't match the publication: maybe the word count is not ideal, or the narrative is too difficult to adapt to audio, the genre may not be our cup of tea, or (and I know it can be irritating and vague, but) the story simply doesn’t match the “vibe” of the zine.

Being an editor at a lit mag is all about curation. Mubi and Netflix are very different, even though they are both streaming services. What differentiates them is the curation. Sames goes to literary magazines.

So rejection doesn’t mean there is something wrong with your story and that it should be rewritten. There are many other reasons for rejection, and you shouldn’t go around changing what you wrote in the hopes of hitting a sweet spot.

Second, some stories are just harder to sell.

Some months ago, I was submitting a short story, which discussed abuse. It didn’t contained any gratuitous violence, but I knew that only talking about such a topic would make the story harder to publish.

The first rejection letter I received actually gave me some hope.

The editor was kind enough to send me custom feedback saying that they liked the story a lot — they commended me on the premise, the prose, and on how I had handled the abuse topic. They assured me I had something good in hand and that I should keep submitting it. But unfortunately, they couldn’t accept the story because it contained that heavy topic.

I kept on submitting, but as I received more and more rejection letters (most of then impersonal), that initial spark started to die out. The little voice infiltrated my thoughts: Maybe you should change the story, just so it is more, you know... acceptable.

I had worked hard on that story. Revised it god knows how many times. It was good enough already. I knew the only reason I wanted to change it was to be accepted.

Resisting that impulse was difficult. However, I felt that the story wasn’t mine any more; the characters had taken a life of their own, and the story now belonged to them. I was simply the teller, who reported their actions and feelings.

Changing the story would be unfair to them.

Skip forward a month or two.

I came across an anthology call: the publication wanted stories which used horror to explore deeper topics. It was a match made in heaven.

My story got accepted (the anthology is going to be published next month, and I can’t wait to share with you) and, of course, I was glad for not rewriting the story.

Pressure, fear, insecurity should never be the reasons to revisit and rewrite something.

Ask yourself: do you know in your heart that you did all you could to make your story good? Did you do justice to what you wanted to say? Did you make all the possible improvements?

If the answer is yes, then don’t let the fear of rejection, or someone else’s opinion influence you into changing it.

If you receive a personalized rejection letter pointing out problems in your story, by all means take the criticism into consideration. If you believe that some aspects of it are valid, go ahead and do some rewriting. Otherwise, stay true to the story.

But please, if you only receive standard, vague rejection letters, avoid that impulse to try and guess the reason for the rejection. Because your mind will likely start to project and reinforce insecurities you already have about your writing. And they are probably not even true!

So hold back on that itch to rewrite just to be accepted or validated. Because that is really a case where rewriting is a bad idea.

Thanks for reading, and I hope this letter was helpful.

Sincerely,