Years ago, when I first started writing with an eye toward publication, common wisdom held that we were supposed to write short stories and sell them to genre magazines, as a foot in the door. This was back in the days of SASEs and waiting weeks to hear if a story had found a home. One of the short stories I wrote was a near-history science fiction piece about the effects of climate change. Some of the characters were members of a gang who went out into the weather to let the acid rain scar their faces. Others were beachgoers who wore full-body mesh suits that allowed them to tan without suffering from radiation sickness (or so they believed.) I was careful to extrapolate my ideas from concerns the experts of the time were putting forward. Alas, it never sold. One of the editors I submitted it to wrote me a personal rejection I’ve never forgotten. He couldn’t believe my science was on track, and said, “So putting Al Gore into the White House didn’t help with the climate after all?”*
I shouldn’t have, but I put the story aside and moved on with other things. Yes, I let one editor’s opinion color my own view of my work. I wish I’d been braver and trusted myself more. But let’s jump ahead to last weekend. My husband found a link to an independent film about society after drastic climate change. He pointed it out to me because the writer had also come up with the acid rain scar detail that I had in my story, and we joked for a minute about how they must have stolen my idea.**
The point of all this is to remind you never to give up on a story you create, especially these days. No one knows where your art will find its proper home, and the last place anything belongs is in a drawer and out of sight. Keep trying. Success can’t happen if you hide your work away.
*I told you this was a long time ago.
** I’m absolutely certain no one stole my idea. My story hasn’t been seen by anyone since the 90s.