Therapy writing.

[bladespark]

Today started like SHIT.

Got a rejection from a publisher that just... It was completely crazy-making. They (politely) tore the story to shreds. Absolutely everything about it was done all wrong, even though it had "promise" and was well written, it didn't deliver on that promise, etc. etc. etc.

Thing is that among those comments was one about how the protagonist in particular fails as a character because he starts out being nearly all-powerful. He's rich, immortal, has slaves, has everything he wants, where is there for him to grow?

THAT'S THE POINT!

That's...what the story IS. Literally THAT beginning is THE POINT of the story! He has everything, yet he's miserable, he's always seeking more, it doesn't make him happy. The story is an emotional journey. I guess because it plays out on ships, while fighting dragons, against a backdrop of demonic cultists and political power struggle, they were expecting the story to be entirely about those things? They're just set dressing for a selfish bisexual disaster of a man learning how to be non-selfish, love, and let himself be loved. That's the story!

To fix the story using their tips, I'd have to re-write nearly all of it. What would be the point? Might as well write a whole new story from scratch!

Frankly, it makes me a lot happier for the "This was just not a good fit for us" notes I sometimes get? This story was obviously not a good fit for them, and their advice telling me how to make it a good fit feels like they just trashed it for no good reason!

Hell, maybe there's some great advice in there I could use, but how would I know? If they can't grasp things like a guy who spends most of chapter 2 ruminating on how much he hates himself being a story about emotions, then I can't trust them to grasp anything else. (I even had "it's been compared to Anne Rice's work" in the cover letter, but it wouldn't shock me to find these folks have never read Anne Rice. Hey, speaking of characters who are all-powerful...)

I swear, it's some kind of fanfic/non-fanfic cultural mismatch or something. I think some publishers have never encountered stories built on emotional journeys before!

ANYHOW. Speaking of fanfic, I decided I needed a writing palette cleanser after that horrible start to the day, and so I asked for crack-ships in the Hades server I'm on, and wrote a story for the first pair I got! I plan to do more little shorts like this, because not all ideas suit a full treatment, but they're fun anyway.

Abandon All Hope (Hades Drabbles) (1237 words) by bladespark
Chapters: 1/?
Fandom: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Hypnos/Tisiphone
Characters: Hypnos (Hades Video Game), Tisiphone (Hades Video Game)
Additional Tags: Sex Pollen, Mildly Dubious Consent, Crack Relationships
Summary:

A collection of very short Hades stories, mostly inspired by people on the Than/Zag discord.

(These short bits haven't been beta-read, put on Patreon, or otherwise seen by mortal eyes before going up here, so feel free to point out typos and egregious grammatical errors!)

Comments

[james]

I kind of really want to read that story now, so keep looking for publishers. :-)

[bladespark]

Honestly, I have spent the last 8 months trying, and I am feeling incredibly burnt out about it. So I don't know. Eventually I'll try again, I guess.

[thesebonesaregood]

Omg, right? Like, please just give me a 'This wasn't a good fit for us' rejection kthx

[adafrog]

{{{hugs}}}

[thewayne]

You have to remember that submissions editors are simple people. Salt of the earth. The common clay.

You know.

Morons.

:-)

Sounds like a good story arc to me.

[duskpeterson]

"I swear, it's some kind of fanfic/non-fanfic cultural mismatch or something. I think some publishers have never encountered stories built on emotional journeys before!"

I wouldn't be surprised. I get the feeling that much of the industry is that way.

Industry genius: "Let's make a great adventure story. It'll have fights, things blowing up . . . The audience will eat it up."

The audience: "Baby Yoda! How adorable!" (*Audience creates a billion fanworks featuring Din Djarin taking care of Baby Yoda.*)

[silveradept]

Ugh. That's a terrible rejection letter, unhelpful in the worst way.

And now to read this fic, which will be much more appreciated than what the editors gave to you.