Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Frustration and anonymous poetry

Today I heard back from the magazine that had given me a list of things they didn't like about my story. They offered me the chance to change them and send it back. I changed nearly everything they had suggested because most things made sense. I did keep a few things that I thought made the story what it is.
I opened the letter and found another set of comment sheets signed by the same people as last time. What did they say? Good story but here's what we don't like about it. As I read further I imagined they would say something about the part I didn't change but I was wrong. They didn't even mention it. They just made a whole new list of things, none of which were in the last letter. And to be honest they were very vague things like "a few paragraphs don't flow well".
It's really great that they give feedback because most people don't. I just think that sending someone a list of comments and saying "fix these and we'll reconsider" and by reconsider we mean giving you lame excuses and more things we dislike, is a little confusing. If they had wrote back and said they didn't think I changed enough or had mentioned the part I didn't change I would be okay but don't say "this part sucks and I, as an editor, didn't notice it before". I guess mostly I just don't understand. Well, actually, I do. It's a crazy business but it is still frustrating.
My complaining probably sounds ungrateful and unreasonable, if it makes sense at all. I'm just annoyed.

On the other hand I did something a little odd. I know several times I've mentioned poetry and how I don't get it. Mostly I don't understand the "techniques", but with all art I believe it is the message, not the skills and training, that matter more. And every now and then I have something to say that isn't a short story or comic book. I'm not sure what it is . I just write it and it kind of seems like poetry. Anyway, it's not my goal to get it published I just have something to say. So I joined one of those on-line poetry websites in hopes of getting some feedback. I'm not going to say my pen name or which site because I'm not brave enough to let people who know me read it. I know that sounds weird but that's me.
The only problem is that I feel to get feedback I should give some. I'm horrible at commenting and as I've mentioned many times before I don't know poetry. I guess I'll just have to comment on the message I get from the poetry. To me, that's the most important part anyway.

Just watched: 30 Rock (Tina Fey is one of my heroes!)

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