Thursday, March 04, 2010

Career Day

Yesterday my daughter told me her school was having a dress-in-the-career-you're going-to-have day. She couldn't decide whether to go as an artist, a crazy cat lady, or an editor.

"What do editors wear?" she asked.
"Bow ties," I said.
"What do the girl editors wear?" she asked.
"Probably business casual," I told her.
She wasn't thrilled with this answer. I have some of those outfits but she didn't want to go to school wearing my "old lady" clothes. "No one will know what I'm supposed to be," she said.

I thought up the perfect solution for her. She went to school with a red pen tucked behind her ear(I told her to use it liberally)and a stack of rejection letters to hand out.

"You don't have to wait for people to submit to you," I said, "just go up and tell random people that you think they have no talent."

Here is what her rejection letter said:

Dear Hopeful Writer,
Thank you for letting us consider your manuscript. After careful deliberation (we looked at it for several seconds) we have decided that your work doesn’t meet our stringent standards. (We all laughed ourselves silly.) We wish you all the best in your writing career. (Give up now and get a job at Burger King.)

Sincerely,
The editor

When my daughter came home from school, I asked her if she handed out all the rejection slips.

"Yeah," she said. "And I wished I'd brought more to give out."

Yep, she nailed being an editor.

20 comments:

The Novelist said...

The person who thought up "Dressing for career day" really needs to think about what they have done. So many careers are business casual. I can just hear the disappointment in the kids voices when they hear they get to wear church clothes to school because that is pretty much what business casual is.

Janette Rallison said...

Yeah, I told her she should go as an author because that way she'd be able to wear her pajamas.

Tales of Whimsy said...

LOL
Too funny!

Debbie Barr said...

That's really funny. I will have to keep that in mind for a Halloween costume, maybe. But only among nerdy friends.

Shari said...

I so laughed out loud. Thanks for making my day.

Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

That letter is such a hoot! Very clever indeed. I think she has what it takes.

nikkebirde said...

That is SO awesome!!! I wish I had a "Dress up for career day" when I was in school!! Maybe I'll be an editor for Halloween! Handing out rejection letters at the YSA Halloween dance would be WAY to fun!!

Sarah M Eden said...

I believe she has found her calling in life.

Nicole B. said...

Oh, this is so funny! I laughed right out loud! I think she's really found her passion. :)

The Dreamer said...

Haha! Awesome ^_^

Don said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Don said...

This. Is. Perfect!

I especially like the part about rejecting everyone on sight.

Heather Moore said...

Maybe I should submit my manuscript to your daughter right now before she gets too hardened

:-)

Anonymous said...

I've gotten that rejection! Could she send me another one please? I haven't had a good rejection in a while.

Faith E. Hough said...

I just KNEW that's all that editors really did! ;) Except to be authentic, she should have made them WAIT for the rejections...:)
Very funny post!

Janette Rallison said...

You are so right! I should have had her put them in envelopes which read: Do not open for 6-8 weeks.

Anonymous said...

bahahahah that makes me laugh :)

hows the sequel to my fair godmother coming?

Janette Rallison said...

Well, the good news is that I actually reached an end of the story, the bad news is that it still needs lots of work. The editor wants it by the 15th. So we'll see . . .

Julie Wright said...

LOL! This is why I love you

Anonymous said...

my grandma is a crazy cat lady. I'm not going to tell you why. Because if I do you will all run screaming.