Word Imperfect

Today on Twitter the hashtag Share your rejections was trending. I set out to write one tweet and wrote this instead.  My first query rejection was very kind and positive. I still cried, but it was the best rejection anyone could hope for.  The rejection that sticks out to me was one that I’m just getting over, when my freelance editor told me the book was going nowhere.  That may sound harsh, it did to me. I cried. I screamed. I wanted to go drink but the restaurant my family took me to was in a dry town. I was inconsolable. I never responded to the editor. After paying hundreds and working with her on 3 rounds of edits this felt like a betrayal.  Her exact words were that it was “charming but not compelling” and that I was too close to really tear into it and make it what it needed to be. I was so mad. What did she mean “tear into it?” It didn’t need tearing. It needed line edits and proofreading. The story was fine.  3 years later I can tell you something I’ve never