Clean dreams …

• Posted in About Books, General musings, On Writing

Magical Musings had a post a few days ago about Feng Shui and New Year’s. The post basically talks about getting rid of all the crap you don’t need anymore and making sure everything in your house is in good working order. Feeling all inspired and needing to do it anyway, I decided to systematically go through my house and get rid of everything I hadn’t used in the last six months.

The crap. Oh, the crap.

I never really considered myself to be a pack rat, but since I started cleaning, I bet I’ve thrown out at least a dozen trash bags of old report cards, school papers, newspapers, magazines, and general debris. Not to mention all the clothes I’ve taken to Goodwill and the old VHS movies I donated to my local library. And I’m not done yet.

Among the more interesting items I’ve rediscovered during my cleaning frenzy are rejection letters I’ve gotten over the years. I had a big blue binder full of them. It was kind of funny and depressing to go through the letters and see all the ways a writer can be rejected — and realize just how many times I had been. (I lost count after about 200.)

Form letters, form notecards, handwritten scrawls that read Thanks, but no thanks. I’ve gotten them all. One rejection letter from an editor said she/he was passing on my book because the heroine was a journalist. That’s it. That was the only reason she/he gave. Perhaps if my heroine been a chef or something else, she/he would have bought it. Maybe the most succinct and depressing rejection was this one: I just didn’t like it enough.

Okey-dokey.

Some authors keep all their rejection letters. Not me. They went in the garbage, with everything else. I’m Feng Shui-ing my house and life, and I figure it’s good to get rid of as much negativity as possible, including rejection letters. 😉

I did keep a few of the letters, mainly for motivational purposes and to remind myself how hard I’ve worked to be published. Among the keepers? The three rejection letters I got from the agency that now represents me.

What about you? Are you cleaning house in the New Year? What will you keep? What will you throw away?

7 Responses to “Clean dreams …”

  1. Chasity says:

    We recently moved into my childhood home. While we were packing to move, I came across off sorts of junk. I think I threw away 2 truck loads full of crap. Once we moved, and started unpacking, I’m still finding junk. It’s not pretty. I can’t believe Hubby and I have accumliated this much stuff in 5 years. Geez.

    Good for you for throwing those rejection letters away!

  2. Edie says:

    I keep my rejections with my taxes, in a different room. They’re proof that I’ve been trying, and I like their negative energy out of my office.

    I started going through my kitchen cupboards this last week, and I’m almost done. It’s not been a fun time for me, but it does feel good getting rid of all that stuff.

    I have to add that I’m amazed at all you do. You write at least six books a year, have a full time job, read a tone of books — and to top it off, you clean.:shock: Are you sure you don’t have some kind of super power yourself? C’mon, you can tell us the truth.

  3. LaDonna says:

    Jennifer, I really, really need to toss stuff outta my office. I have those old rejection letters you mentioned, and old manuscripts in a closet up there. I might do it in small steps, but it will be done this year. :mys: I’ll need a van like this to drive it off too, I bet!

  4. Amy says:

    Aww, man. I was doing so well in my little land of denial. Your post made me realize that I really, really need to clean out before the rugrat arrives. Sigh…and just when I was starting to dive into my tbr pile. 🙄

  5. Michelle says:

    Bella inspired me, too, Jennifer! And I threw out a good 6 bin bags full of junk. It feels sooooo good. I only keep the rejection letters that actually don’t reject me, they ask me to change the story and resubmit. If only they could all agree on how the story should be changed, LOLOL.

  6. Jennifer Estep says:

    Chasity — Most of my junk was old papers from high school and college, but there was a lot of it. I also had a ton of old birthday and Christmas cards that I’d kept over the years, as well as piano books from when I took lessons. Lots of those went into the garbage, too.

    Edie — No superpowers, I swear! And my goods times are about to end. I just got some thoughts on revisions from my agent, so that will suck up all my time now, instead of fun stuff like reading. But revisions are a necessary evil. 🙄

    LaDonna — I thought about doing it in small steps … until I saw how much junk I had. I’m following Bella’s advice and being ruthless. If I haven’t looked or thought about it in a year, it’s going into the garbage!

    Amy — Yeah, it might be a good idea. According to my friend with two kids, after the baby is born, the only thing you will want to do is sleep, not clean. 😯

    Michelle — I kept some of those kinds of letters — the one that offered helpful advice. In a way, though, those are worse than the form letters. Because you know they actually read your chapters, and they still didn’t like them. Sigh.

  7. Liz Kreger says:

    I know … I know. This is something that I should do but I hate the idea of doing it. This is important STUFF, y’know. 😆 I go through my office periodically and put things in order, but according to hubby, not often enough.

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