Grasp the farming script in the famous book

Roland sat in front of the small desk in the attic, biting the pen holder, staring at the stack of manuscript paper in front of her.

To be honest, asking her to write a story about farming may not be as difficult as asking her to plant a field herself.

But Beth gave her great encouragement and courage.

——Writing is also a kind of expression.

Roland can fluently use language to tell her past "experience" as a "story", and make the audience immersive.

Sometimes when Roland tells Beth her farming story, she will put a suspense at the beginning, and then reveal it bit by bit.

She especially likes to see Beth's itchy heart when she listens to the story, eager to know the follow-up expression, and also especially likes to see Beth's sudden realization and pat on the chest to relieve the heart when the dust settles and the suspense is revealed.

Roland knew that she already had the basic ability to "tell stories", but this was not considered a "novel", let alone "literature".

She needs to turn these "stories" into written language and put them on words.These words must be concise, refined, and have artistic conception, which can quickly pull readers into the story environment she created.This is actually quite a difficult challenge for someone like Roland who has no professional training.

Roland bit the pen holder for a long time, and he was determined not to care about three seven and twenty one, but to write down everything that came to his mind first.

So she put aside all worries and restraints, just expressed, just turned the language in her mind into words, gushed out from the tip of the pen, and became lines of beautiful handwriting.

After taking the first step, Roland felt a lot better - she had spent a lot of time reading the most outstanding literary works in human history before, and in this plane, she did not give up the habit of reading. She has already read all the books in the library at Aunt Qi's house, which are of high literary quality.

Therefore, the words she wrote down were much more concise and easy to understand than the words that flashed in her mind.

very good! ——Roland said to himself, just keep writing like this.

So she spends more and more time in the attic every day. In addition to taking care of Aunt March's orchard, making cakes and snacks, and accompanying Beth

Other than that, she just crouches at a desk in the attic and writes her own "story".

The March family is very pleased with this phenomenon.They had probably expected that Joe would pick up her pen again and continue to write her story.

Only Laurie was a little depressed.

He came back from college and wanted to play with Jo, but was told that the "big writer" was finishing her work behind closed doors.Laurie was "closed door" both times.

In a blink of an eye, Roland really wrote a story, and he was quite satisfied with it, but... the story seems so short.

Roland raised his face, imagining how it would be printed in typeface—probably just in a newspaper or magazine, occupying a page and a half or a small space.

But this was only her first attempt, and she thought, it would be better not to write a long story full of articles.

She went to show it to Beth, and earnestly begged Beth to give her some opinion.

Beth looked at it and laughed, and Roland blushed immediately, and couldn't help asking: "I haven't written for a long time, has my level dropped too much compared to before?"

Weak Beth shook her head as hard as she could, and whispered, "I'm so happy for you, Jo!"

"You're finally writing again!"

Beth's affirmation gave Roland the greatest motivation.She revised the article according to Beth's suggestions, polished the text, and then carefully copied a few copies on the manuscript paper, and mailed the manuscript according to the address list of newspapers and magazines listed by Joe. .

After she's done with it, she puts it behind her.

She still has a lot going on, getting everything done and trying to earn enough money for a family vacation to the beach before the next story in her head can take shape.

After the manuscripts were sent out, they all came back one after another—these are the legendary "rejection letters".

Roland didn't expect that she would be published on the first try, but she hoped to find her future direction through the feedback from the editors of the newspaper.

Who knows... no feedback.

Roland opened the letter and saw her manuscript lying in the envelope without any new creases, as if it hadn't been read at all.

Roland is in a good mood.She put these "

Rejection letter" envelopes were threaded with cotton thread and hung in front of her writing desk in the attic, encouraging myself:

——This is a good starting point, because as long as the editor of the Xiabao Agency can give her a few words of evaluation, she will be considered to have improved.

Roland himself was busy as usual, but the March family knew that she had been rejected.

Mr. and Mrs. March once comforted her at the dinner table, suggesting that she try a few newspapers.Mr. March also told her the names and addresses of the editorial offices of several newspapers in the Washington area, and encouraged her to try them.

Under Aunt March's teaching, Amy's speech became more and more "watertight". Sitting at the other end of the table, she would raise her head, look at Roland with her big water-blue eyes, and say solemnly: "Jo, please Don't give up trying, you are 'talented' in this matter." The word "talent" is French.

Roland: "Thank you, Amy!"

She also switched to French, and Amy suddenly looked very happy.

Meg was pregnant and did not come home very often, but when she did she asked:

"Joe, how's the manuscript?"

When hearing that the publishers had rejected the manuscripts one after another, Meg sighed softly when there was no reply.

"Joe, maybe try one of the stories that run so often in the papers? They shouldn't be too difficult for you?"

Roland thought to himself: That's right, "follow what you like" is indeed a way of judging to please readers and decide what you want to write.

However, writing is a rather personal matter, closely related to the author's desire to express.

When what the author wants to express is inconsistent with the reader's preferences, whether to persist becomes an important choice.

Thinking about it this way, Roland didn't change course, nor did he send out the handwritten manuscripts that had been returned before.

She re-examined the manuscripts, once again judged whether they were interesting and attractive, then made appropriate revisions, and then carefully copied them out.

On top of the manuscript, she also added a cover letter——

The letter stated sincerely that she was Josephine March from such and such a small town, she loved to write, and two articles had been published in such and such newspapers in the past.Now that she has changed her writing direction, if she wants to know how this kind of story theme responds, please edit when she has a little spare time.

Under the premise of this, I can comment a few words on her contribution.Of course, if you're not free or inconvenient, it's okay not to comment...

New cover letters have been mailed out again.Similarly, Roland didn't have much expectation for them.

Ten days after the manuscript was sent out, Roland received replies one after another.

This time, the cover letter worked.

Although she still received a rejection letter, the other editor was at least willing to communicate with her.She saw handwriting in the returned manuscripts—mostly handwritten, not typewritten.

"Thank you for your contribution, please continue to support xx Weekly."

This is the most succinct reply.

"Miss March, please don't bind the manuscript in your next letter. 1"

This answer was written very hard, as if I hated the habit of "binding manuscripts".

Previously, when Roland sent out the manuscripts that had been transcribed, they were all bound with cotton thread.

As you can imagine, editors need to take manuscripts apart so they can be reviewed and read, so the more conscientiously a contributor binds a manuscript, the more trouble they will have.

Roland is very grateful to this editor who writes very hard - without him, she would never know that there is such a taboo in submission.

So she put this reply letter on a cotton thread and hung it in front of her writing desk.

At the dining table at March's house, Mr. March asked again: "Joe, how is your submission?"

Roland laughed crisply, and said happily, "I submitted to eleven more schools, and ten rejection letters have already been received."

This……

Family members at the dinner table look at each other.

Eleven submissions were submitted, and ten rejections were encountered. It was hard to expect that the last one would allow Roland to pass the manuscript.

But, the contributor himself, why so happy?

"But one of them replied to me very seriously, saying that my story is fluent and easy to understand, and it is also very attractive to read. But it is not very consistent with the mainstream works of their newspapers..."

Mr. March raised his eyebrows in surprise, and said, "They gave you such an opinion?"

“As far as I know, editors nowadays rarely respond to rejection letters. Most of them just send the manuscript back.”

Roland smiled at his father, thinking: This is because I have found the trick.

If it wasn't for the very sincere submission letter, she thought, the results of this round of submissions should be the same as those of the previous round.

She went on to say: "...the advice they gave me was to polish this type of story, because books like "Robinson Crusoe" can sell well, they don't see that this type of story will have There is no reason why there is no audience."

At the dining table, the family looked at each other, and everyone showed a look of relief for a while.

But Roland didn't finish: "They also gave me the address of another editorial office and asked me to write to them to try it out. They said that my story style might suit them."

"Wow!" Mrs. March exclaimed first, "This is great."

Beth and Amy clapped their hands and applauded for a while, and even Hannah who had just entered the restaurant congratulated Roland: "Miss Josephine, is your book about to be published?"

Roland blushed immediately: I haven't even written the horoscope yet, what everyone was talking about just now is obviously a rejection letter!

Everyone laughed even harder.

"Joe, it's all thanks to your persistence." Mr. March also encouraged Roland, "Try and improve, and you will definitely gain something."

Roland solemnly thanked Mr. March for his encouragement: "I will, Dad."

She really wanted to submit an article immediately according to the editorial office recommended by that newspaper, but she also wanted to wait until the only one of the eleven that hadn't heard back replied to her.

Unexpectedly, the reply letter from the only remaining family never came.

Roland also gradually put this matter aside, not thinking about it.Seeing the days go by and her money is almost saved, it's time to propose to the whole family: go to the seaside for vacation together.

She wrote to ask for quotes from several “resort hotels” by the sea—resorts of afterlife that offer home-style accommodations and even kitchens for guests to cook for themselves.Therefore, it is especially suitable for budget-limited and family-style vacations.

Roland planned to ask all these questions clearly, prepare all the money, and then show his cards to his parents and invite them.

The reply from the hotel was much faster than the reply from the editorial department of the newspaper.The next time the postman came, he handed Roland a stack of reply letters.

Roland held these reply letters, walked through the lush yard of March's house in late summer, read them and stretched them out.

Push open the door.

Flipping through them, she saw that the letters were all from the seaside resort, and there were one or two letters to Mr. March among them.

She flipped through the pages until she reached the end, and suddenly saw a thin envelope with a certain magazine listed in the address column.It was the eleven families she sent out at the beginning, the one that had not heard back for a long time.

This letter is so thin - Roland weighed it.

Others always returned her original manuscripts, so the envelope was a thick stack in the hand.

Did this family forget to return the manuscript to her?

While thinking, Roland quickly returned to the living room, sorted out all the letters from his parents, and organized the replies from each hotel into a pile, preparing to go back to the attic and slowly unpack them.

Her eyes fell on the reply letter from the magazine again.

Roland felt a little strange in her heart. She reached out to open the letter and saw the content of the reply letter. She just sat there and didn't even notice that Beth also entered the living room at this time.

"Joe, what's the matter with you?"

Only then did Roland lift his gaze from the letter, feeling a little dazed at first.When she saw that it was Beth, she jumped up and hugged Beth.

"I think, I have received a 'letter of application'."

Roland hugged Beth vigorously. If she didn't have this little angel in her arms, she probably wouldn't have the courage to try to open up this field that she has never been good at.

Beth's eyes widened for a moment: "Let me see, let me see!"

Her voice was thin and trembling slightly.

Roland quickly let go of her and handed the letter to her, while paying attention to Beth's condition.

Beth was sweating finely on her forehead, her breathing was a little fast, and her heart was heaving and falling.Her eyes were firmly glued to the letter that Rolandi had given her.

As if she couldn't believe it, Beth watched it three times before throwing herself into Roland's arms again: "Oh, my Joe! You succeeded."

Yes, this thin reply letter is to inform Roland that the magazine is willing to accept her manuscript and will pay 2 dollars as a reward.Reply to ask for Roland's opinion. If she can agree to the remuneration, the magazine will publish this little "story" in the next issue.

This will be the first time Roland has received an author's remuneration.The two articles published by Joe before have authorship, but no

Paid.

Roland and Beth embraced. At this moment, she suddenly felt an unprecedented joy——

It is like seeing the ears of rice sown by one's own hands, and the branches of fruit trees sown by one's own hands bear fruit.

Her efforts were not in vain, and besides Beth, there were other people in the world who liked her story.

At this moment she and Beth were alone in the whole March house.The sisters don't have to worry about other people, so they can shout and laugh unscrupulously, expressing the happiness in their hearts.

After a long time, Beth came to her senses and proposed something: "Joe, this letter suggests that you choose a pen name. When you publish your works in the future, you can sign your own pen name."

"Joe, have you thought about this pseudonym?"

Roland was too excited before, and really missed this part.She hurriedly took the letter from Beth again, read it again carefully, then stuck the letter to her chest, nodded, and said, "Yes, I have decided on a pseudonym."

"I think my pseudonym will be - Roland."

The author has something to say: 1 The submission experience in this paragraph refers to the early submission experience in Stephen King's writing memoirs - don't bind, it is indeed one of the important advices given by the editor to the submission authors.

In addition, this article does not consider the issue of "multiple submissions for one draft" for the time being, and it is completely ok for a "sea investment" like Roland by default.