Locked drawers

Reflecting on rejection

We walk around the galleries. I point out the cuneiform tablets and you tell me about the shrunken heads. We make inappropriate and difficult jokes. Our conversation is strictly confined to the contents of the locked display cabinets. Our private thoughts are likewise captive.

You tell me this is one of your favourite places. I ask you when you last came here and you say that it’s been more than five years. I think: if this is one of your favourite places, how come you’ve not been here in so long? I think that maybe you like the idea of something being your favourite, but you’re dissatisfied with the reality.

You’re thinking the same thing.

This is an extract from a short story I wrote in around 2013, inspired by a visit to the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. (Although I took this photo somewhere else.)

I’ve submitted this story to various writing competitions, which you generally have to pay to enter, and to a few writing magazines and journals, which are generally free to submit to, but you usually don’t get paid for your work if they publish it.

This story was rejected multiple times until 2018 when it was shortlisted in a competition run by a flash fiction journal called Ink Tears – which no longer seems to exist as their website has gone. They sent me a very nice email to say that the piece has merit and to keep submitting as it may very well get selected by another contest.

So far it hasn’t. And that’s okay. Writing is subjective. Every reader is unique and takes something different from a piece. Every competition, magazine, journal, editor, agent and publisher is looking for something specific. Even when you think you’ve matched your piece to their tastes and criteria, they might tell you that it’s the wrong fit for them.

I stopped submitting for a while. Partly because of the cost of entering writing contests. Partly because it’s deflating to get the rejections. Partly because I was also working hard on my professional writing job as a copywriter, which is where my talents are stronger.

But in October last year, around the time of my birthday which is a good time to wipe the slate clean and begin again, I decided to start submitting my pieces again. And to my great joy, one of my tiny pieces of writing was accepted.

I’ve had loads of writing rejections over the years but the biggest rejections can come from not even trying.

Don’t let fear hold you back from sharing your words.