Christine Kelly Reads and Writes

I’m hoping this metaphor will resonate with you as it did as I thought about it while listening to the 11/9 TSNOTYAW podcast and probably stuck in my head because my kids are watching the new Netflix Dinosaur show.

While I am no scientist (so this may not be the *perfect* metaphor), as I thought about it more and more, I wanted to share.

To start, I want to get some Science-y things out of the way.

To explain, the ozone layer, according to Science and Google is: The ozone layer protects our planet from harmful solar ultraviolet radiation.

Additionally a meteor shower is: When this happens, the bits of comet debris, most no larger than a grain of sand, create streaks of light in the night sky as they burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. [Fun fact, go google meteor shower, it pops up on your screen as a meteor shower– at least it did on my laptop!]

So why do these things have anything to do with writing? Great question!

First, I’ll start with the gentler portion of this. When receiving feedback, sometimes it can hurt. But, after a day or two of ruminating and sleeping on said feedback, it can feel la bit better.

That’s what I think about as a meteor shower of feedback. It could be scary if there are large particles of sands coming at you, but given the space (ozone) or the filter of recongnizing who it’s coming from (ozone again), it can end up being a beautiful thing. Feedback can be hard to take or hear, but in the end, *usually* it can help make your writing stronger.

Now to what really hurts to hear and the rejections that land despite the protection of our layers of logic (ozone).

When the dinosaurs were wiped out, there was a large meteor that caused a fiery explosion, huge waves, and a dust cloud that covered the earth. When author Jean Kwok got her rejection and also “dumping” from her agent, that was a meteor strike. She said for a month she needed to recover. While there were many years that caused the die out of dinosaurs, her recovery took a moth until she could see the sun again. This is what a harsh rejection can do. And just like the earth (because we’re here now), writers can persist after a hard meteor strike. It just takes time.

TLDR or TLTC (too long too confusing): This is my way of telling you sometimes rejections hurts. And it cuts deep. It’s ok to take time away to get your mind right again. But what I also want to say is….don’t give up. Because Jean didn’t. And she went on to get a major deal.

I want to also say I don’t mean this to be toxic positivity. I’m just doing my best to root for all of you. Because the more you stick with it and take the meteor showers of feedback, the more likely it is you’ll end up with something beautiful.