I made this publishing bingo board in the midst of a particularly intense season of rejection letters. I was working in a toxic, stressful work environment—I was filling with anger and bitterness, and was just super done with everything. Why wasn’t I a famous author already?
But I realized complaining was doing no good for me (or anyone else for that matter) so I decided to create something, channel the feelings out, and move forward with my life. My frustrations became a bingo board. It was very cathartic to make, and helped me learn to laugh about how weird publishing can be. Rejection never fully goes away from the submitting process, so we might as well make something fun from it!
I recommend printing out the board and keeping it in your drawer, or on a bulletin board or refrigerator. Put a sticker on the appropriate square for each time you encounter a situation, and reward yourself with something fun when you hit bingo.
You can also copy the board to share with your friends, and play virtual bingo with each other online (whoever hits bingo first gets treated to lunch when the coronavirus ends, or feedback on a new poem, or bragging rights for the month—whatever you’d like!). Or, consider making your own publishing bingo board!
Looking for more content like “Publishing Bingo Board?” Check out recent blog posts focused on rejection.
Meg Eden’s work is published or forthcoming in magazines including Prairie Schooner, Poetry Northwest, Crab Orchard Review, RHINO, and CV2. She teaches creative writing at Anne Arundel Community College. She is the author of five poetry chapbooks, the novel Post-High School Reality Quest (2017), and the forthcoming poetry collection Drowning in the Floating World (2020). Find her online at www.megedenbooks.com or on Twitter at @ConfusedNarwhal.