Unpopular opinion: Magazine submissions killed my dream of being a writer

I always wanted to see my stories in print. Sending them out was slow and most never got a reply. After too many rejections, I just stopped trying. Now I think the whole process is stacked against newcomers. I'm over it, but it still feels like a missed chance.

3 comments

3 Comments

the_patricia2d ago

Come on, the whole "stacked against newcomers" thing is in every creative field. My buddy's band got turned down by every local venue for a year. My own design work gets ignored in emails constantly. That shoebox of rejection slips? That's just the cost of trying to make something. Maybe the dream wasn't killed, it just met reality.

reed.elliot2d ago

Absolutely, @the_patricia nails it. I sent demo tracks to like fifty music blogs and got one reply that just said "not for us." Felt brutal at the time, but you're right, that's just the entry fee. My own rejection folder is just a sad cardboard box now.

josephadams2d ago

My friend Sarah kept all her rejection slips in a shoebox, maybe two hundred of them. She finally just burned the whole box in her backyard grill last year.