Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Rejecting Gertrude Stein and Writing Prompts

“I am only one, only one, only. Only one being, one at the same time. Not two, not three, only one. Only one life to live, only sixty minutes in one hour. Only one pair of eyes. Only one brain. Only one being. Being only one, having only one pair of eyes, having only one time, having only one life, I cannot read your Manuscript three or four times. Not even one time. Only one look, only one look is enough. Hardly one copy would sell here. Hardly one. Hardly one.”       
                                       
--from a rejection letter an editor sent Gertrude Stein in 1941 after thumbing through a draft of Ida.

I got this in an email today, inviting me to a networking event in which participants are asked to bring along a memorable rejection letter/email!  Yes, this is how we writers have fun!

On a note of a differently inspiring nature, here are the writing prompts from today’s meeting of my neighborhood prompt group:

--Snow*

--The infinity in you is the reality in you. 

*This was taken from The Sun magazine’s list of upcoming “Readers Write” topics, so if you come up with something you like, send it in!  This is my favorite part of this fabulous magazine, seeing the different—often harrowing—interpretations of the same topic.  (Here’s a link to an abbreviated “Readers Write” feature from the current issue, on “warning signs.”)

Work-in-Progress

DC-area author Leslie Pietrzyk explores the creative process and all things literary.