Rejection and why it doesn't kick my ass as much as it used to.

This is what rejection feels like;




This year of querying is my third time. Not first, not second, but third time querying the same WIP. Granted, after the second round of rejections I flipped a poo and rewrote the entire thing, and the result was AWESOME.

A lot of agents talk about the 'practice novel' and how the author will sometimes query it to them. I made that mistake twice, and it killed me. Right now, I'm doing something rather devious and querying the same agents I queried before, but with this shiny new WIP and new query with changed character names.

I'm relying on the fact that agents tend to FORGET a terrible past query. (I hope.) D:

So now that the REAL DEAL of my WIP is done and out there in the query world, I feel pumped. Excited beyond recognition. For the past two query times, I had no confidence in my manuscript at all - I expected all rejections and I mostly got all rejections. But even if Satan came up and slapped me in the face, I wouldn't quaver away from my confidence with this WIP.

So far, the rejection count goes something like this;

Formal Rejection: 3
Partial Requested but Rejected in the End: 1
Haven't heard from yet: 56

Rejection doesn't hurt anymore, but not because I've grown used to it. I have this crazy glowing trust that defies rejection, because the WIP is just that good. It deserves nothing less than getting published, and very soon. I KNOW it will get published, because I can feel it. Hard to describe, but the feeling is there, like a deja vu I've yet to trigger, but know is around.

And when it happens, I'll probably just explode. And throw a party. Not necessarily in that order. Or maybe in that order. I've always wanted to go to a party as a cloud of unrecognizable fleshy bits.

Put your WIP in Wordle and Weep.

Slow day at the office.

I did this instead.

http://www.wordle.net


I pasted my ENTIRE 306 page manuscript into there and it comes up with a wordcloud, with the largest words being the most used. It's a really handy tool, actually, and the list of most used words goes like this;

1. Shadus (UH OH. MAIN LOVE INTEREST UH OH.)
2. Miranda (She's one of the top five main characters, so this is expected)
3. Eyes (hurr durr)
4. Back (what the fuck?)
5. One (uh...sure.)
6. Lara (yup. Main character.)
7. Like (and I'm not even from California)
8. Head (???)
9. Face (I'm concerned because body parts seem to be a trend.)
10. Away (??? I don't recall writing it that much?)
11. Know (I recall writing this MORE.)
12. Time (Ditto above.)
13. See (Verbs are really common on this list. Bad or good? No idea.)
14. Around (An Approximate word. Ugh lots of these fags)
15. Away (APPROX. WORD)
16. Joseph (Yeah! Mexican badass.)
17. Geoff (No! Evil guy!)
18. Look (...kid's book much? I coulda used 'gaze', but nooooo)
19. Moment (MAKES SENSE.)
20. Anything/Something (TIED FOR 20th place the irony does not escape me.)
21. People (Duh.)
22. GCIP (Mofos.)
23. School (Ugh.)
24. Cure (Disease isn't even on this list. Suspicious.)
25. Makes (VERB.)
26. Stands (VERB.)
27. Kill (I'M STARTING TO GET WORRIED ABOUT THESE VERBS.)
28. Light (Yeahhh a noun!)
29. Even (APPROX WORD. FUCK.)
30. Go (VERB.)
31. Get (VER-UGH.)
32. Voice (Noun yay!)
33. Cassie (lololol the Main Character is down here because it's first person POV.)
34. Good (I don't know whether to cry or commit seppuku.)
35. Basement (THIS ONE WAS A SURPRISE.)
36. Gutters (duh.)
37. Quiet (Not silence? Weird.)
38. Life (i herd u liek mudkipz.)
39. Feel (VERB.)
40. Every (APPROX WORD jesus christ.)
41. Quickly (ADVERB. I am so dead by the syntax nazis)
42. Never (APPROX WORD I wish I never used dem.)
43. Right (WRONG.)
44. Now (APPROX WORD)
45. Still (APPROX WORD)
46. Just (APPROX WORD WHERE IS A NORTH KOREAN BOMB WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE SWALLOWING ONE?)
47. Mr. (Yeah, Geoff rigged this one.)
48. White (Where's black. I r disappoint son.)
49. Blood (HURRRRRDURRRRRR)
50. Smiles (gay.)



So, this was informative. I'm going to slash and burn as much as possible. The main theme of the most used 50 words was verbs and generally unneeded approx words. Body parts were also very common even though I don't remember writing about them so much. I also thought Kill would be higher up (and Cassie). And I expected more colors.I was disappointed in myself that Shadus was #1. Oh well.

YOU LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY - *brick'd*