Kelvin is a Danish writer who also runs a weekly fiction newsletter on the web. His thoughts, below, were first published on the online magazine, hackwriters.com.
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Rejection:
Yeah, I know, what a terrible depressing place to start.

But there are enough worthy texts that instruct you about where to use a semi-colon or how to approach publishers.

Whereas, anyone intending to submit work for publication had better ensure they've taken the very first step and psychologically prepared themselves for rejection. Because it happens to almost everyone - it's happened to every writer I know.

And it happens whatever their chosen form: novels, stories, poems, articles... They come trotting back in that envelope you recognise instantly because you addressed it yourself. Your first novel hasn't been hailed as the new Ulysses; they haven't even compared you to Irvine Welsh.

You haven't won that new writing competition - don't even appear in the highly commended top fifty.

Sorry, but Coal & Coal Bunkers Magazine can't use your witty 'Smokeless Fool' feature. Writing is not for the faint-hearted or thin-skinned.

A seasoned scribe once advised me not to expect to make a living at the craft.

'Dinnae gi' up the ****ing day job, pal,' was his actual turn of phrase. Said writer, a feisty Glaswegian male, earned his crust by penning in the style and under the name of a long dead female romantic novelist, selling in modest numbers to a limited audience and attracting absolutely no critical attention.

But even this dubious estate, he advised, was more than I should ever even dream of aspiring to. Ah but, I was callow and didn't heed the wise old mage. I am talented, I thought, I am original, I am a real novelist: never will I sink so low as you. That was before ten years of rejection letters took their toll.

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