Creativity Acknowledged: Receiving My First Acceptance E-Mail from an Editor

A few months ago I joined the Yahoo! Contributor Network, (now Yahoo! Voices). In part to look for a source of income from writing. In part however to look for some validification for my writing.

Validity is a big thing for me. I like to know if people like my work. Here on HubPages we post our work and if people read it some leave a nice comment, but most do not leave a trace of their opinion one way or another. That can be frustrating at times.

Over the time I have been with the Yahoo Contributor Network, I have written several articles and pieces, submitted them and a few days later received an e-mail telling me the piece was rejected for one reason or another. I guess the modern equivalent of the authors dreaded rejection slip.

Two weeks ago a opportunity arose on my assignment desk to write a poem based on a photograph.

I flicked through their online image gallery, being blind this was the tough bit, but a beautiful image of the Full Moon stood out for me. That would be my inspiration.

Eagerly I tried to think of all the things the Moon meant to me: Romance; lovers; harvest Moon; more romance; more lovers and so on.

My mind was definitely stuck in a rut. I could not break away from the iconic traditions of what the Moon represents. and after a couple of pages of notes, even I could see this was going nowhere for me or the poem.

So what to do then. I had accepted the assignment. It was not due for ten days anyway. So I just put down my pen and walked away. Listened to an audiobook, looked up questions here on HubPages. For two days I thought about the assignment but did nothing towards continuing my work on it.

On the third day, I sat down again. Still the images of romance and love came back.

But somewhere the Muse must have been working overtime. An image came back to me from years ago. Walking down a track through fields of summer wheat with my granfather and his dog. As the sun set the Harvest Moon began to rise across the fields. Large and golden, it seemed to fill the horizon.

My grandfather was not much of a story teller, but he began to tell me of old times when giants walked the world, if they were hungry they would reach up and take a bite from the Moon which was really a giant cheese.

It was a fascinating few moments for me and all the emotion of that late summers day came back to me.

The muse had indeed inspired me.

In moments, my poem changed. No longer a poem of love and romance. Now a poem inspired by my grandfather's story of giants.

My short poem soon completed, I sat and gazed at it for a few minutes. Listening to the voice of my screen reader, repeating my words over and over. It seemed to me just right, but I waited another day before finally submitting the piece to the editors.

Six days later, I opened my e-mail account. There was an e-mail from Yahoo Contributor Network. Almost expecting to have received another rejection slip. I clicked on it. To my stunned amazement the poem had been accepted and published.

The feeling was very different than the one I get from seeing replies to my posts here on HubPages. I enjoy both but here someone was saying. "Yes, this work is good enough. To show you how much we like it we'll pay you."

It is so nice to have the validification in that form. Only a couple of dollars but still the first direct payment for work. Very different from the being paid for producing an advertising platform.

Even the list of rejection slips seem to vanish with the one acceptance e-mail.

After all many "real" writers say that you are only a writer if you have been rejected.

So maybe this past week I moved from being an optimistic amateur to the realms of a real writer.

In my dreams anyway.