Dealing with Rejection

I know we’ve discussed this before, but I recently received my first Rejection and so it’s been on my mind lately. It was very difficult to receive the comments. I didn’t take it as a personal attack or want to get back at the editor. I know it was nothing personal. But, that doesn’t make it any easier to take.

I received a lot of feedback, so much so, that the editor really didn’t have anything nice to say about my story. I think if they would have said something nice, it would have made the rejection a little easier to take, but unfortunately, that’s not always the case. At any rate, the editor found plenty wrong with the story. There is a lot of work ahead of me if I want to fix it and resend it out. I haven’t decided yet what I’m going to do, but that’s a lot of work to just let go to waste. Many months have gone into writing and revising the book.

I did share the comments with my critique partners and they did not agree with the assessment given by the editor. That made me feel a little better. But, I’m still questioning my writing abilities. I’m sure that happens a lot with writers when they receive negative feedback. I have to admit that I didn’t agree with everything she said either, but I do know that she was right about some of it.

All we can really do is keep plugging along and try to improve our craft as much as possible to decrease the amount of R’s we receive. I’ve been considering taking some online classes to help me improve my writing abilities. I’ve heard good things about some of the classes online and they can be relatively inexpensive. Of course, in this economy, it doesn’t take much to be too expensive. Anyway, that is my plan for the first part of the year. I will keep writing as well, but I do want to work on my writing at the same time.

I’ve heard many times to just read to improve your craft, but I’m afraid that method doesn’t work well for me. I’ve tried it numerous times and although I have to be absorbing some of it subconsciously, I’m not getting the full effect that many people get from it. I know my problem is that I get too involved in the story and forget to notice the writing. Maybe I should reread something I’ve already read, that way I already know what happens and then I can pay more attention to the writing itself. I’ll have to try that next.

Have you taken any online classes that you recommend or don’t recommend? Let me know your experiences with them, I’d love to find out more. If you haven’t taken any online writing classes, how do you feel you learned best? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Is It Hot In Here?

Writing sex scenes for romance novels is pretty much required. Of course, you can write sweet romances, inspirational romance, or even young adult and avoid this area, but for the most part, sex is required.

At first, I was embarrassed to write those scenes. Now that I've gotten more involved in the business and made friends, I've learned just how popular the romance genre is. Romance is the highest selling of all the fiction genres. There are a lot of people reading them, so why should I be embarrassed to write the sex in them?

For one thing, it's a very personal subject. Some people can't even talk about sex without blushing. I'm not that embarrassed, but I do believe sex can be a touchy subject. Let's face it, it happens. Everyday, every hour, probably every minute, somewhere in the world, someone is having sex.

I got past my embarrassment well enough. Once you write your first scene, it gets a lot easier from there.

They are difficult to write though, because you have to convey the emotion of the moment. That's not an easy task. You can't just write about the mechanics because that doesn't get people emotionally involved. We want to know how she's feeling, what her thoughts are. And what about him? It's even harder to write from his point of view. As I've never been a man, I don't know what he feels like.

Someone gave me the good advice that to write a good sex scene, you should have a 50/50 balance. 50% should be mechanics and 50% should be emotion. That sounds like pretty good advice to me.

I'm still working on improving my writing. I probably will until the day I die. I believe that you never know everything there is to know about a subject. You can be the worlds leading expert on something, but I'm sure, there is more you can learn. There is always room for improvement and ways to better your craft. So, for now, I will keep learning and keep trying to write the best story I can.

Do you have trouble with writing sex scenes? As a reader, do you have difficulty reading them, especially if they are poorly written? I'd love to hear your thoughts.