Friday 25 November 2011

Being Acceptable.

One of my stories concerns two people who get caught in a repetitive dream reality that’s becoming dangerous. Like most of my stories (and pretty much everybody else’s) it’s had its share of rejections.

One editor admitted he didn’t understand it; he said it was too far out. If you’ll excuse the vernacular, he went so far as to call it ‘fuck brain stuff.’ It was rejected again this morning, but this time the reason given was marginally different. This time I was told ‘We want stories that push the envelope. This is too clichéd.’Enough said, eh?

Fortunately, rejections don’t bother me a bit. I have no reason to feel insecure about my writing and I know that the extent to which creative endeavour can be the subject of definitive opinion is greatly limited. And that’s the point: opinions are subjective.

Those who need to make a living from their endeavours might feel compelled to compromise. That’s their choice; it’s a matter of how they want to walk their personal road. The rest of us should surely accept that creativity is essentially personal, and the opinions of others relatively unimportant.

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