By Joan
When I first wake, I slap on my glasses, pick up my phone from my nightstand and
scroll through emails. I’ve got my eye open for agent emails from still-outstanding manuscripts – even though everyone knows emails are for rejection and phone calls are for offers of representation. Like many writers,
I’m on mailing lists for publishing industry newsletters and literary magazines' calls
for submissions and contests, such as Publisher’s Weekly, Writers’ Digest, The Bookseller (in case one day I want a London publishing job!), Ploughshares, Glimmer Train and Granta.
If I’m in recluse writer mode, I often delete these – write
first, read about writing later! But Wednesday morning I was scrolling through my
email and noticed a Ploughshares email which read:
Ploughshares Lit Mag (@pshares) mentioned you on Twitter!
I opened it up to see that Ploughshares had published my
essay online in their Writing Lessons
feature. I scrambled out of bed and went to tell my husband. Before I had a sip
of coffee, I read and reread my essay, paced and jumped and screamed. Before
re-Tweeting and Facebooking it (are these verbs yet?), I wisely waited for
caffeine.
At our last retreat, Pamela and I made a pact to submit
something every month of 2014--to
a contest or literary journal or writing program, and when our current
manuscripts are ready, to literary agents. We both started early by submitting
in December. Pamela was rewarded right away with a lovely essay she wrote about her Mom, published in the New York Times Magazine.
Writing a novel is a long process with few rewards along the
way. This week Susan shared some tips on setting writing goals. She wrote: “Not
only does submitting your work keep you focused, it keeps you writing.”
So far in January, I’ve submitted a novel excerpt and the
first two pages of my WIP for an online agent workshop. In February, I will
submit a short story to another literary magazine and will likely apply for one
or two summer workshops, as well as enter some contests in the spring. By year end, I hope to be submitting my new manuscript. Getting
rewarded right away was definitely motivation to continue. Don’t ask don’t get,
or in this case, don’t submit, don’t publish.
I’ll leave you with an inspiring clip posted on The Australian Writers' Centre's Writing Bar blog from Neil Gaiman, a true advocate for aspiring writers.
In the clip he says:
“If you’re only going to write when you’re inspired, you may be a fairly decent poet, but you will never be a novelist.”
“If you’re only going to write when you’re inspired, you may be a fairly decent poet, but you will never be a novelist.”
And:
“... as quickly as you can, start telling the stories that only you can tell — because there will always be better writers than you, there will always be smarter writers than you … but you are the only you.”
