Compliments Help Refocus My Goals

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My writer’s ego has been feeling a bit bruised lately.

This is unusual; a career in journalism has given me a thick skin, at least as far as my writing goes. I’ve gotten criticism since my days on the college newspaper, some of it justified and some of it not.

It’s generally believed that if a journalist can’t shrug off such calls, emails, Facebook posts or tweets, then they’re in the wrong profession. In journalism, criticism comes more frequently than compliments. And I admit that some of the criticism I’ve gotten was deserved. Much as I try to avoid it, I’ve made blunders, and people are right to call me on them.

All of which is a long way of saying that I know my writer’s pride shouldn’t be feeling hurt, but it is, for two reasons. First, it’s contest time, which means that I took a look over the past year’s work to choose what to submit to the Better Newspaper contests sponsored by the two professional organizations to which we belong.

Going through the 47 issues that represent my work over the past 12 months, I found absolutely nothing I’d written that was worth submitting to a contest. It’s not that I think my work was bad, it’s simply that none of it would stand out among the competition. I found contest entries for the rest of the staff, but none for me.

Then, as if taking a critical look at my work for the past year wasn’t demoralizing enough, I received a rejection from a top literary magazine to which I’d submitted an essay. Adding insult to injury was that the rejection came three days after I sent in the essay, despite the fact that their turnaround time is usually several months. I can only conclude that not only did my essay not meet their needs at the present time, as they so kindly phrased it, but that it was so inappropriate that it wasn’t worth more than a quick perusal.

When I lamented the rejection to a writer friend, she told me what I’d have told her, if our situations were reversed: It was no reflection on the quality of my work and that top markets receive thousands more essays than they can publish. All of which is true  but it didn’t make me feel any better.

What did make me feel better was my sister, to whom I sent a piece about the Gospel story of Jesus healing the bleeding woman. She called the piece thought-provoking. “You can’t ignore it,” were her exact words, adding that she’s amazed at how good I am with words.

This is the same sibling who called me “weird” when we were growing up,  so I take her recent compliments as high praise.

Then, yesterday, a reader called with a compliment on one of my recent columns and provided details about why it expressed the faith we share.

Reflecting on all of this reminded me why I write about the faith. My goal as editor of this newspaper isn’t to win contests, but rather to let people know what’s happening in their Church, both locally and universally. I write this column as a personal expression of my faith in the hopes that it might touch people in some way. My creative writing, such as the piece I sent to the national magazine and the one I sent to my sister, are ways for me to explain ways in which the faith is relevant. More than any award, more than acceptance by a national publication, the compliments tell me that in some small way I am succeeding as an evangelist.

“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples,” Mother Theresa said; way of casting such a stone is to write and then to pray my words create ripples when they are read.

Marie Mischel is editor of the Intermountain Catholic. Reach her at marie@icatholic.org.