Rejection Bubbles

When the email drops into your box from the fiction ed's secretary, you know it's rejection before you even open it. At least they have answered and given you a brief reason; I appreciate their time. But they still said no, and darn it, it was a good story.
When you look for other homes for the good story, you realise how few there are - how many magazines are no longer running fiction. This means we are all chasing the same shrunken market and you have to raise your game more and more to get the sales. You have to write your absolute best each time, each word; you have to have the sheer energy of conviction and resolution, of pleasure and drive. You cannot do this half-heartedly, or anxiously, or full of self-doubt. It isn't just self-belief, either, but a connection with the world around you that drives good writing, interest and joy in the people and events that occur daily. It is the quirky and fresh view.
But today I was tired and there have been too many rejections lately. So today I tidied. If in doubt, I always tidy. There are times when it isn't procrastination but necessary displacement and a use for frustrated energy. Tomorrow I can go back to writing when the rejection becomes another in the pile and I can pick myself up. At least I'll have a very tidy chest of drawers when I start to write again and maybe something will have bubbled up in the space I left in my mind today.