The PRO-loop is hosting a class this month about rejections. Some fabulous agents and editors have participated as well as a number of published authors. They stop by to shed light on why they reject a submission and what goes through their minds in the process. It has been incredibly informative and the guests have been incredibly gracious.

Coincidentally, I dropped by my friend’s house yesterday and she’s reading the book He’s Just Not That Into You. I skimmed through the story (more a collection of whys/whynots) and I started to draw some connections.

This book maps out a lot of the excuses women use to rationalize male behavior. The authors are funny (writers from Sex and the City) but unfailingly blunt.

A small part of me wished this dratted book would have been written when was wading through the murky waters of unmarried life. It would have probably saved me from the PhD candidate who seriously said to me “being in a relationship with you makes me not want to be in a relationship” and the guy who broke up with me in one breath then asked to spend the night in the next.

Or maybe it wouldn’t have. I can be a bit stubborn sometimes.

But, as I’m now happily married to a guy who IS into me, I (in a nod to how obsessed I am these days) started making connections with my writing.

For a book full of harsh truths, it was surprisingly upbeat. Instead, of harping on the negative, it focused on what a girl is missing by wasting her time. And that it’s best to people at face value.

Rejections are the same way. There seem to be infinite reasons for rejections. Too similar to something they already have, not passionate about it, plot flaws, story flaws, voice doesn’t click with agent/editor, and on and on. Sometimes we’re lucky enough to get very specific feedback that explains what any given agent/editor is thinking. But a lot of times we don’t. And like the girl holding on to the guy who’s just not into her, we as writers can read a form rejection and overanalyze it like we’re writing literary criticism about it. We think, “I read such and such trade article that says the market’s full of XYZ that my book has. Maybe that’s it. Maybe if I tweak XYZ element of my story, that’ll do it.” Add multiple scenarios of reading between the lines.

But like the girl and the guy who isn’t in to her, we’re missing the big picture: if they don’t come right out and tell us why it’s been rejected, we can’t know for sure. We can just hone our craft, write the best book we can, and throw ourselves out there.

I pitched at the NJ RWA. One agent listened to my pitch and said flat out, “is your story erotic?” When I answered in the negative, she politely shook my hand. “I’m looking for erotic stories specifically right now.” And that was it. I thanked her and moved on. If that’s what she’s looking for, we don’t fit and that’s fine. She was very nice, I’m sure she’ll make some erotic writer a wonderful agent. But she just wasn’t that into my book.

It happens.

What’s the most helpful thing you’ve learned from a rejection (writerly or otherwise)? Most counterproductive? (Please, no names to protect the not so innocent). Those of you who have been rejected, how do you overcome? Anyone see this movie yet? Read the book? What did you think?

Influence this week: My theme song for Cin.

S.O.S. (Anything for Love) – Apocalyptica ft. Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil – Worlds Collide (Special Edition)

Cyanide Sun – H.I.M. – Venus Doom

It’s the first requirement of almost anything you do. It’s glass top absent of a speck of dust. It’s the gentle heart that breaks and the flinch in her eyes. The glance to the door every second. The way she memorizes the room as she walks through. Writing a scene is like reading the fine print. Everything is in the details, including how you hook the reader.

***

The first thing I noticed when I pushed open his front door was that it wasn’t locked. The second thing was the broken glass on the floor and pressed into the bottoms of my feet. My heart thudded painfully in my chest and even though I had nothing to do with this; I couldn’t help but think someone had come looking for me and found him instead.

Night had settled upon the humans, and street light shined through his window blinds. I slipped through the darkness and made no sound as I neared his bedroom. The door was cracked, the wood bowed in and hung from the hinges by just a couple of screws. The smell of his blood was faint and I closed my eyes and held my breath to keep my control. Blood smeared on my hand as I touched the door, sticky and cold, long since been shed. I rubbed my hands on my pants, and turned away from the door.

I moved through his apartment and into his living room, carpet thick and plush under my feet, glass flakes shimmered like a million diamonds around his brown leather sofa. The fire in the fireplace had long died out and the red hot embers smoked and cracked as they crumbled into ash. It was here that smelled strong of blood, and red dripped from the edge of his coffee table and onto the tan area rug. The sound reminded me of a dripping spring in the winter, the sound embedded into my memory. It was times like these that I wish I had a voice and didn’t have to settle for the silence.

***

I write description as though I’m the one walking into the situation. Say I’m walking from the ship deck to my bunk. I go through it frame by frame. You have to set the scene behind your character. How are they framed? “The reddish and orange hues of the sunset played off the white capped waves of the sea. All was quiet on the mighty RWR tonight as I moved silently across the deck to the mast. The feel of the breeze on my skin raised goosebumps and rustled through my hair. I smoothed it down as I reached up for the first metal peg and hoisted myself up. The climb relaxed me as I let my body go fluid with the rocking motion of the ship. Each step brought me closer to solitude. A long day of rum guzzling and man oogling was tough on a hard working ninja like myself and I was ready to kick back in the crow’s nest for a little nap.”

Description is different through different sets of eyes. That may sound redundant; but some people catch the fly on the wall and some merely glance over it and never truly see it for what it is. Writing description is like this as well. Writing the description calls for us to be overzealous with our attention to detail. What color are the walls? What sort of layout? What is in the room? Where are you standing? Does he own his great-grandmother’s Victorian sofa and crystal or something new and modern and a bear skin rug in front of the fireplace? The detail makes the character you learn to know and love. Their flaws and virtues are intricate details we iron out as we write them.

So today, let’s work on our scene description. How would you describe the most mundane of things? If your character was walking into a room, how would they choose to see it? And are you the type to catch the fine print detail or are you more caught up in the moment?