Well, it finally happened - I received a rejection, but with the comment that if it were extensively rewritten, then they'd be happy to look at it again. The market in question is Goblin Fruit, and the submission is one of my prose poems, "Silver Night Train", that's been making the rounds. After reading the editors' comments, and reading the poem again, I've come to realize that what they're saying can be applied to all of my poems, and a good percentage of my shorter fiction: the poetry gets in the way of the narrative. Too much wallowing about in pretty images, too little forward movement of the plot.

Unfortunately, it's a bit tricky when your poetry gets in the way of, er, your poetry. :) I know the old saying "kill your darlings" is quite true, but it gets difficult when the work in question is composed of almost 100% darlings. It's going to be something of a challenge to take a 100-line poem and essentially slash 50 lines out of it while pumping up the narrative, especially when I'm still at the "oh, but they're all wonderful lines!" stage. On the other hand, this is a great opportunity to learn something about writing poems, which is clearly a different process than writing fiction. I can see why many writers might take this opportunity to quietly shelve the work in question, or send it somewhere else, but I think I'd be stupid not to do what the editors are suggesting. They're giving me a second chance to submit the work, and a first chance to learn how to write a publishable poem.

So, my darlings: farewell. We'll meet again, in another story or poem. Nothing ever disappears completely. That's why it's called "inventory".

::snip snip snip::

Labels: "Silver Night Train", poetry, rewrites

Today I sent off a slew of projects to various markets - a story to Subterranean Magazine, a dark fantasy prose poem to Mythic Delirium, and a shorter sf poem to Abyss & Apex. Yes, I write poetry. Actually, I've been writing prose poetry ever since high school, and it wasn't just an angsty goth/punk teen phase that I eventually outgrew. It's just, I tend to not talk a lot about the poems. I don't know why. Maybe it's because it's so much more difficult to describe them, or for people to crit them. I don't send them out for critiques or comments. My poetry is a lot like my erotica - I know when it's right.

Of course, having said that, I fully expect quick rejections on both poems. The universe has a funny way of making me eat my words. Silly universe! ::shakes fist at universe:: But in the past couple of days, between bouts of writing on the secret project, I've jotted down a few more ideas for prose poems. And then, of course, there's my unfinished poetic masterpiece (which I plan on un-unfinishing sometime this year): "The Alchymical Wedding of Thisbe and Hephaestus". It's a touching surreal story about the great love between a lowly secretary of Jersey City and a massive sentient industrial pile driver. No relation to my life, of course. Or to Killdozer. :D

Labels: poetry, short story submissions