Writing for a living: how to handle rejection

I returned from my trip to the coast of Washington with some story ideas.

I looked at a recent copy of the Travel Section of the Oregonian newspaper and sent a query to the editor. He was interested and wanted to see the article. I followed the style of a writer in the paper; similar sentence length, the format for including addresses and contact info etc. . I sent in a piece about the same length and was rejected. He was kind enough when prodded to tell me why. It seems a staff writer had a similar article to be published that Sunday and the other reason was that "it was not compelling."

After the stinging sensation wears off you try to 1) rationalize by dissecting your article, 2) look immediately for another placement and 3) just decide that it wasn't the right timing or style.

I really learned that even though you are always told to review what the publication has done before, if it's not your style, its not your style!