The large-ish batch of stories I sent off some months ago are coming back in having been politely stamped with the big R.  I don’t mind too much, as I’m also looking at several publications pretty soon here, but I do feel divided.

On the one hand, I have an almost compulsive horror of stories sitting on my hard drive once they’re finished.  The only way I know of to deal with rejection is to roll with it.  My MA training provides me with the mental image of rolling through a spill, back up to my feet, and for me that translates to getting the story out to another market asap.

The problem?  Many of these stories were written several months if not a year or two ago.  As I look at them now I can see that story A would be stronger if I subtly upped the tension here and here, while story B may not be selling because the beginning doesn’t quite set up the end and needs tweaking.

But, as I’m not made of time, (who is?) this leaves me in a twitching state of conflicting compulsions until I can get the stories patched up and sent back out.  All of them.

Sigh.

Oh, to go back to the days when I dreaded rejection for its own sake.