Commitment

I was reading a blog post this week about how to have a successful blog.  Top of the list was commitment to regular posting.  Reading that, it struck me that this is just another aspect of the commitment we writers need if we're going to make our way as published authors.

For over thirty years I've been writing without any monetary reward for my work.  I write every day, whatever is going on around me.  When i worked full time I snatched a half-hour of time before the start of the work day, and always took my lunch hour.  And I sat down to write during those sessions.  I'd then take the scribbles in my notebook home and type them up after the end of the work day.

My rejections file stands at around 300 rejections now, and I still haven't sold anything. Partly that's because I don't submit enough.  I wrote two novellas in the summer and submitted  both.  Both were rejected, and I haven't done anything with them since.  Which is stupid, as I believe they're damn good stores well written and they should be published.

And this is where a different kind of commitment is needed, the commitment to the tedious reading of the ever-differing submission requirements of every market, the commitment to tailoring submissions for each market and sending them out.  The commitment to keep turning stuff around and sending it out as soon as each rejection comes back.

Writing is always a joy for me.  Submitting that writing is, frankly a pain, even with the supposed ease of email submissions.  There's still no way around the tedious work of re-formatting your story for each magazine or agent's specific requirements.  No two are ever the same, and I can spend hours altering files around just for one round of submissions.  And then having to change the format again for the next one.

But this is the kind of commitment I need to get more dedicated to.  So for 2015 I'm going to set myself some goals that commit me to sending out a certain number of short stories every month, and detailing the number of submissions to agents I'll make during the year.  2015 really must be the year when I commit to doing whatever it takes to get a piece of my work published by a real publisher.