WRITING

A Writer Asked If He Was A Doddering Old Idiot. Since I Often Ask Myself The Same Question, I Had To Read On. I Decided He’s Not & Neither Am I . . .

Here’s a link to his piece —

Other than calling himself an old crank who hates change — which I can partially relate to — what interests me is his comment that, after waiting a week or two, he’s pulled articles from non-responsive publications.

I’ve done the same, but I always feel guilty about the little message that warns me editors are still reviewing the article.

Really? Are they looking for ways to break it to me gently that it’s just not for them — or marveling that this brilliant piece of writing actually ended up at their humble publication? Or was the delay due to a heated debate on how to adequately compensate me?

I know, I know, none of the above. Just too many submissions and not enough editors.

I’m fairly new on Medium and still learning how to use the platform more effectively. At the moment, I submit to about half a dozen publications and get very quick and positive responses from most of them. But because I’d like to increase my readership, I’m constantly looking at other publications to see whether my subject matter would be a fit.

I’ve submitted to several that I think might work, then after hearing nothing for a week or so I’ve withdrawn them . . . then worried that I’ll be permanently banned from ever darkening their editorial doors again.

No doubt this impatience is colored by my experience with submitting to larger non Medium publications. I’ve read editorial guidelines until I could recite them by heart, carefully crafted a concise and thoughtful query then waited. And waited.

A response, please. Any response.

Your piece sucks, find a different line of work.

Not even that. Eventually, I give up all expectations.

I also write fiction and get roughly the same non-response from literary agents. Throw in a few impersonal rejection slips from those who do get around to responding and it all gets so demoralizing, I wonder why I bother.

I’d reached that point when I discovered Medium. From the interaction with other writers to the chance to make a little money, it’s been an enormously positive experience, so this is less a complaint than an observation.

Technical glitches happen and most writers suffer from self-doubt. After reading the piece by happer55.medium.com (I’d call him Harry, but since I don’t know him, it may come off as, well, overly familiar)I wanted to write a comment.

Lo and Behold, another little glitch. The comment bubble at the end of his article indicated he’d received 20 responses. But the box at the top of the response column told me that mine was the first.

I included this discrepancy in my response.

Ten minutes later, I went to the site again and found twenty-one comments — the previously mentioned twenty, plus mine describing the glitch.

A bit embarrassing, had I just not seen them? Could it be that I really am a doddering old idiot?

No, they definitely weren’t there . . . and then they were. Twenty of them.

Damn technical glitches.

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