So yesterday, I got an encouraging rejection, basically saying keep seeking a home for this story. I have no problem with that. I do my best to push a story right back out into the finest slush piles. And I’m hoping to find this story a good home, but all the professional markets that haven’t rejected it already are closed!
One might open in a week. Another in a month. Others, who knows when. So, since I’m feeling encouraged, I’m going to let this story lie in wait for them. I hope that’s the right choice, because the last thing I need is feel encouraged not to submit a story right away.
Now if I want to feel discouraged, I only have to contemplate the story that I’m sitting on because it’s running out of places to go. Unlike fields, fallow stories don’t get any better. Not sending it anywhere is definitely the wrong choice. And here’s where the internal pep talk pipes up with: There’s a way to fix that.
See? Now I’m encouraging myself! It never ends.
Writing Every Day 