{"id":135,"date":"2025-06-12T22:05:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T22:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.samanthahund.com\/?p=135"},"modified":"2025-06-12T22:09:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T22:09:21","slug":"bloody-nose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samanthahund.com\/?p=135","title":{"rendered":"Bloody Nose"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Writing requires a certain amount of masochism.<\/p>

Even when you\u2019re doing it all right, and technically doing well<\/em> \u2013 your life is at least 95% hearing \u2018no.\u2019<\/p>

I wonder sometimes if we\u2019d all be much better humans if we were forced to fail that consistently. I confess, I don\u2019t always take it elegantly. I do try, but I can also spiral into levels of melodrama Lestat himself would be ashamed of.<\/p>

I always come back to that story about Hans Christian Andersen flopping face-down onto Charles Dickens\u2019 lawn, refusing to leave. Dickens, the unwilling host, just anxiously wringing his hands like \u2018Can you have your tantrum literally anywhere else?\u201d<\/p>

I can relate. I\u2019m a lawn-flopper.<\/p>

I try to remember writing requires some level of professionalism, though as a rule, you\u2019re gift-wrapping your unfiltered thoughts, lobbing them at strangers and trying not to wince.<\/p>

It\u2019s brutal.<\/p>

And yet, I get up, every morning, and keep going.<\/p>

For example, this week I received 4 rejections in one day. Across multiple genres. That was a new all-time low.<\/p>

I have previously experienced the slow-drip version of this, one rejection a day for a five-day streak. I assure you, both are awful in their own special way.<\/p>

But the thing I keep coming back to, even when friends and family side-eye my lemming-like need to seek brutal rejection is this:<\/p>

Technically, I\u2019m still getting more yeses than I should be. By far.<\/p>

Every \u2018no\u2019 hits harder, but when I do hear yes? Those beautiful, rare words of praise? The ones that actually get <\/em>it? There\u2019s nothing like it.<\/p>

I\u2019m not known for my smiles, it\u2019s true.<\/p>

Somewhere, there\u2019s a picture of elementary school me, dressed in a black velvet dress with a white lace collar (thanks 1990s) and utterly bereft of a smile. In my defense, the photographer didn\u2019t say \u2018smile\u2019 so I took it as optional.<\/p>

However, when I hear anything that remotely sounds like \u2018I liked your story\/poem\/novel\u2019 I start grinning like a drunk. It\u2019s rather unsettling.<\/p>

So I guess that\u2019s why I keep opening that door. I keep tossing work out there like it doesn\u2019t matter. Because most times you get punched in the nose. But sometimes\u2026 someone hands you a flower.<\/p>

Grudgingly\u2014SMH<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writing requires a certain amount of masochism. Even when you\u2019re doing it all right, and technically doing well \u2013 your life is at least 95% hearing \u2018no.\u2019 I wonder sometimes if we\u2019d all be much better humans if we were forced to fail that consistently. I confess, I don\u2019t always take it elegantly. I do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,19,16,13],"tags":[47,34,25,42,45],"class_list":["post-135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creative-process","category-poetry-short-fiction","category-publishing-journey","category-writing-life","tag-alt-lit","tag-author-updates","tag-querying","tag-short-fiction","tag-whinging","post-preview"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samanthahund.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samanthahund.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samanthahund.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samanthahund.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samanthahund.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.samanthahund.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samanthahund.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samanthahund.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samanthahund.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samanthahund.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}