The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Zara Baxter:

What do you say to someone like this? I mean, when I was writing rejection letters for the Zeppelin book I didn?t say anything, except to the people I knew, the people who came close enough that I wanted to encourage them to submit something to my next anthology, and one nice old English guy who I wanted to thank for the attractive vintage aircraft stamps. But let's say you run into this kind of writing when you're teaching, or in a workshop; is there a way to deal with it that's both delicate and effective?

Rejection is so hard to do fairly, and honestly. And there's that underlying question: How would I take this rejection if it was me at the other end?

The honest person in me would want to say something blunt and straight. I'd want to know if my piece was poorly constructed or ungrammatical. I want to know if I still don't have the basics. It lets me know where to focus my efforts for the next while.

But hearing that about a piece you've submitted is... morale-crushing. If you're in a workshop, you maybe at least get to know the person enough to judge whether they would soak up any grammatical, writerly-how-to and other books you might throw their way.

I don't think there is a simple and effective way to handle it, as an editor rejecting something submitted. And it's not your job to educate the writer about their flaws, just to choose stories that will fit your collection, anthology, magazine or booklist.

[as an aside, and related.. there's an English mockumentary series called People Like Us, which has an episode called "the Artist" or "the Photographer". It follows a few days in the life of a very bad photographer who believes he's got "it" and takes his portfolio to a london gallery for commentary. She rejects him in the most heartbreakingly funny brutal-yet-honest way.]

Tina: It was indeed in the dreaded "other thread". I'll refrain from dredging it up.

Jill Smith: thanks for the kind thoughts. I think we're in violent agreement.

I rather like the idea of being part of the write ring conspiracy. I expecially like that the word "piracy" forms part of that phrase. Arr. Me hearties.

Ellen:

The editor of the mag I write for was on a mailing list for er.. "bad girls" and I posted some of my erotica to that list regularly.

She said something along the lines of "I *know* you can write. Why not try your hand at this computer-related article that needs a writer."

So I did. Et Voila!

From the same mailing-list, the editor of Skin Two (fetishy mag), who had also read my erotica, asked me to write something for them, but I lost the email in a massive hard drive crash, and never followed it up. Ah well. I was so shy and not-really-believing-in-myself at that point that I probably wouldn't have made a go of the erotica anyway. This was about 6 years ago...

Oh wow, this has grown since I last looked.

My degree is in Biology (microbiology and genetics), with dabbles in psych. I actually started out doing the whole research scientist thing, and then fell off the wagon.

Now I work as a consumer advocate and IT journalist.

the only thing in common is viruses.

I got my current job because I wrote erotica in my spare time.

Steve Taylor:

Oh that's marvellous. Eating durians like lychees or longans. Perhaps the writer meant longans?

In summer, the suburb I live in (Marrickville) is scattered with rambutan and longan and lychee shells. In winter, it's custard apple skin. There's a detail I should use in a story. And all words worth eating.

True, Janni, but a google of "Charles Angoff Award" without the extra stuff pulls up quite a few winners, including George Looney and Renee Ashley. Looks like it's awarded by The Literary Review, which published the Australia stories by Todd.

Well, after reading comments on the "Taking your own Bad Advice" thread, I shall cheerfully eat my words about Todd having never been to Sydney. Chomp, munch.

Instead I shall add a small note to myself:

Remember to fact check places you've been even more carefully: you'll assume you know them, but you're likely to stuff up.

I found this link to a Santa Barbara IAP award for composition, which led me to a page mentioning the Individual Artist Program, run by Santa Barbara.

There are many hits for Santa Barbara Individual Artist Program. Since at least one source of Todds says he is originally from California, might this be the source?

I've been googling all his other references, too, because I love a good googlemystery, to be solved with a thorough googlebash.

That man has never been to Sydney, if that snippet is anything to go by. I realise it's all too easy to make the sort of errors that a local will find incongruous at best and outright impossible at worst. That story is an excellent guide about things to fact check if ever I write a detailed description of a place I've never been.

Sydneysiders, go have a chuckle.

I started to play "spot the errors" but it was like shooting fish in a barrel. and when I got to someone watching his grandmother descend The Giant Stairway, I burst out laughing, at work. Oops.

For those not in the know, The Giant stairway descends (all 800+ steps of it) down the side of a cliff. It's very well obscured by trees, so that even while climbing down it, as I've managed twice, you can see others climbing it only at certain rest-points. You climb into a valley with no houses, and the clifftops have no houses either, so the only thing that could watch you climb down those stairs is a very proficient rosella.

Hee. Shouldn't laugh though, I'm sure I've made more glaring errors.

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