I got it wrong

My car has had a funny rattle for a while now (you can tell I’m mechanically minded can’t you?) so I took it to the garage. I told the mechanics that it was the exhaust and fully expected to have to pay out a fortune for it to be replaced. I drove it into the bay, switched the engine off and handed them the keys. ‘How long?’ I asked, thinking I could go shopping.

‘Just a minute Sue that’s not the exhaust, that rattle is coming from the engine.’ Horrified, I stood there whilst they eliminated various problems and finally decided that it was probably the catalytic converter but it would need further investigation. Hundreds of pound signs flashed before my eyes as my car sat there smugly, rattling away to its heart’s or rather its engine’s content. Fortunately my son is a mechanic so it shouldn’t cost me that much to fix it but it’s something I could do without.

I was horrified because I was so sure what was wrong with my car that I’d closed my mind to the possibility that it could be anything else and that I was wrong.

How many times have we done that when we’ve submitted stories or articles to an editor, so sure that they are sitting there waiting for our masterpiece to fall into their in tray that we close our minds to the fact that they could ever be rejected and when they are we’re devastated.

If I’d known more about my car I might have got the diagnosis right. The same goes for any publication that you submit your work to. Get to know your market, read several copies of the magazine, study the articles, stories, adverts, letters etc. Study the way the language is written, study the content that the magazine publishes and get to know the magazine inside out. Then write for it. Don’t ever send off work to a magazine that you haven’t thoroughly researched, that’s a sure way to have your work rejected and like me, you could very well be horrified.

As for my tale of woe. I won’t be sending it off to Top Gear Magazine they’ll most certainly reject it with a comment – WOMEN DRIVERS!