IT'S A FUNNY OLD GAME

Does every writer wonder if they're good enough? Does even Stephen King have off days? I reckon so.

Should rejection be taken personally? I don't think so. Unless it is personal, if you know what I mean.

What about when you know a piece is exactly right for a publication? Every writer, no matter what level, must feel like that for a lot of the stuff they send off, which makes it tricky to gauge. What about if you also know your writing's decent? I'm being hypothetical, here. Honest.

Everybody at some point must have been told by somebody worthwhile (ie not their mum) that 'yes, you can write' or maybe even 'yes, you can write to a decent standard' or even that elusive 'yes, you can write to an extremely high level', so then it just becomes a case of playing the waiting game to find out just who else shares Whoever's opinion.

And if only everybody shared the same opinion.

But that'd be boring wouldn't it? Of course it would. You need to work for something to earn it. Sure, it's intensely frustrating when other people can't see how amazing you are, but then, it's allllll subjective.

What's the point of all this, apart from something that veers dangerously close to the persona of a tortured artist? I've been wondering how viable setting up an online magazine would be. Not as a vanity project - I don't think anyone would take you seriously if you said 'oh yes I have had twenty stories published in Scumbag Magazine' and then they check and see 'Bobby Bigballs' is not only the person who sent them the story but runs the aforementioned Scumbag zine. Quality control, where are you?

The only thing stopping me is that I'd be doing it entirely on my own, and, although I 'technically' have a lot of free time, I'd rather have a couple of other folks on board to help read through story submissions - not to mention spread the word.

My parents have only really given me one true piece of advice, which is 'if you don't give it a try, you'll never know'. So here goes.

If anyone reads through all that dirge and makes it this far, or just just jumps straight to the punchline, and fancies helping out, let me know! It'd help if you know a bit about writing, or at least the English language, in an academic sense. You don't need to be a teacher or anything, but if you can spot a Swiftism a mile away and know what a past participle is, that's a big help.

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