Today, I excitedly told my brother I submitted a short story for a competition for the first time ever. His reply? "Congrats. I guess the first letter of rejection is a special occasion." Gee, thanks for that reality check. FML
Collection
Halloween
A failed costume, stolen candy and a very real scare: Halloween, the one night when fear is allowed.
Today, I was reminded that I'd submitted a short story to a writing competition months ago when I got an email saying I'd won second place. I excitedly forwarded it to friends and family. A few minutes later, another email arrived, explaining they'd contacted the wrong person. My celebration lasted exactly eleven minutes. FML
Today, I came home to find two letters from a publishing house that I'd submitted my manuscript to. The first was congratulatory, stating that my book had been accepted for publishing. The second was apologetic, stating that the first letter had been intended for someone else. FML
Today, I finally got a phone call from a publisher saying they would publish the book I'd written. I'd gotten loads of rejection letters, so I was so excited. Until I realized it was my dad, feeling sorry for me. FML
Today, I was excited to receive a rejection letter, because this was the first company to even acknowledge that I sent them a resume. FML
Today, after submitting a 500-word essay to a writing contest, I found out that I lost to someone who wrote 3 sentences. FML
Today, I received another letter of rejection from the university of my dreams. I got it the first time, but thanks for reminding me. FML
Today, my mom called and told me I got accepted to my first-choice college. I got really excited and asked her to read me the letter. As she started to read it, she said, "Oops... uh, nevermind." FML
Today, my 10-year-old brother won the poem contest at his school. Since then he won’t stop bugging me with them. FML
Today, I got my first big promotion at work. Excited, I shared the news with my parents. My mom responded with, "That’s nice, dear, but your sister just got engaged," and hung up to go back to celebrating with her. FML
Today, I was granted a donation to pay for a creative writing course. When I told my mom she couldn't even muster a smile. She found her excitement later, however, when she posted how proud she was of me on Facebook. I can only get praise through my mom attention-whoring on social media. FML
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Top comments
capscapscaps43 14
Don't let your brothers negativity get to you, I wish you the best with your story.
SubaruWRXSTI 16
Your brother sounds like an asshole. Good luck OP and I hope you win.
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Comments (22)
TheSir022 9
brothers try to be assholes, its what we do. So don't take it to personally. Show him up!
602offroad 12
If you should fail the first time, keep trying. Let success be your motivation. And when you do succeed you can look back on the long road it was and remember the hard work you put it.
ALonelyStranger 12
When you moderated this FML and hit no.
0neiros 14
Write a story about a vengeful woman who murders her asshole of a brother. Leave it laying around for him to read.
Danishduckling 20
Hey, Even J.K Rowling got numerous rejections before getting published!
PrincessShiraz 11
Oh come on, he was joking. And if you can't handle a joke about an imaginary rejection letter, how are you going to cope with the inevitable real thing?
TheShiphoo 14
That's siblings. You can rarely get a 100% honest answer if they don't care. It's all in good spirits, though.
LyricaSilvan 30
Your next story should feature a character whose brother is a condescending dickface who never believes in his dreams. After all, the experts do say "write what you know." In all seriousness, though, don't let your bro's jerkish attitude kill your hope. He's probably just jealous.
da_epic_failman 7
That's a terrible thing for him to say. Good luck with your story, m8!
GhostFox 34
While your brother said that explicitly to be an asshole, the truth is that most authors don't have their manuscript/piece accepted on the first submission. But the denials themselves aren't entirely bad- you can look through the suggestions that each editor made and make a list starting with the most common suggestion. Not only will that give you an idea of what to change for the current work, but you can use it as a reminder of what not to do during first write of your next book. Some denials can also be as simple of a matter as "we don't publish these genres." Keep in mind that a rather large number of writer's who are considered exemplary nowadays were usually turned down repeatedly, usually an insulting manner. Of course a fair few of them didn't see fame until after they died, but if you've managed to finish writing a book, you likely understand that it would be a waste to try to take advantage of that. Also, make sure the businesses you send the manuscript to are real ones!