Update

Seems I’m not doing so great on keeping up with the blog, but I wanted to check in anyways. Even if nobody’s reading.

Anyway, big update missing: the novel I wrote about in the last blog post is done. Well, the first draft at least. I decided to cap it closer to 50k words rather than the 70k goal I had back in January because I want to keep things manageable while I build up my writing habit. I am at work on revising that novel, but it’s going to be a while before it’s done. I am putting it through Holly Lisle’s extensive and exhaustive How to Revise Your Novel course. Please don’t hold your breath.

The big thing I’ve been thinking about lately is rejection. I got a rejection letter yesterday, which absolutely murdered my confidence. I’m happy to say though that I did end up sending the piece out again before I went to bed. I also spent hours yesterday and today reading other writers’ musings on rejections to help myself feel better.

I’ve been keeping track of my submissions on The Submissions Grinder for a couple of years now. My current stats are:
2018 – 4 submissions
2019 – 10 submissions
2020 – 11 submissions
2021 – 4 submissions
2022 – 8 submissions (so far)

I’m hoping to at least tie my 2021 record this year, and I may give the novel revisions less priority to see if I can get up to 12 submissions. What’s clear is that even on my best year, the submissions count is too small. I’ve seen other writers who get up to 100 submissions in a year. That’s probably why yesterday’s rejection felt so bad – I haven’t become desensitized yet.

Anyhow, that’s the state of things at the moment. Now I have to spend at least a little time cleaning before the day job starts.