Try, Try, and Try Again

Over a year ago I wrote a short short—about 1,200 words—and began to submit it—about 30 times.

I began to feel stupid. I think that comes with the rejection territory. You question your existence. Why am I even doing this? Why did I even write that sentence? You tell yourself—just quit already!

For those who don’t get it: writing is hard work. I know exactly what I need to write, how I want it to turn out—it’s getting there that’s the problem. I keep crashing and having to go back to the beginning. Now times this feeling by about 100. I have about 50 stray pieces in process—either submitting, revising, or just getting it down on paper, all concurrent, all at once. It’s like brain streaming or having too many tabs open in your head.

Then! You get a bone thrown at you. Your work finds resonance somewhere. “The Machine Has No Clothes” that short short finally found a home with Carbon Culture—a journal at the intersection of literature, art, and technology. When I saw that tag line at their website I thought—that sounds like my short piece. Thankfully the editor thought so also.

READ all about how a young intern navigates the corporate fashion world and the new technology of a 3-D printer.