Rejection is part and parcel of being a writer, and anyone who has been in the game a while learns to grow a tough(ish) skin about it.

What makes rejection easier to bear is when an editor takes the time and trouble to explain why a story was not chosen for publication. Most editors just don’t have time to give any response other than a standard rejection slip, which leaves a writer with no information on what she or he can do to improve.

I stumbled across this handy breakdown by Christopher Boone on the reasons given for rejecting 300 scripts, and it struck me that most of the faults listed can also apply to stories.

Stupefying Stories posted a harsher, but very funny, list of reasons for rejection recently on Facebook. “Burn this manuscript. _Now_”, “Ack! Ick! Gah! Barf!” and “Gave up on pg. 14, still waiting for story to start” made…