I've been setting Top 3 Priorities for each month, and, so far, that seems helpful.
April's Goals:
😃 1. Camp NaNoWriMo - 20K words on a new NF book on women in business. - Yes, I wrote just over 20K!
😕 2. Submit 4 Pieces for publication - Nope, but I have 3 things ready to go that I plan on homing soon.
May's Goals:
1. Revise and polish four poems to send out.
2. Revise and polish one old short story (from the drawer)
3. Make four submissions (carry-over)
I recently discovered a writer I know sends forty submissions out each month. That floored me. I started out years ago with my first submission goal of 3 for the year, then hit that in three months, so moved it up to 6. I have been aiming to get one piece out per month, maybe even one per week, but the thought of forty.... that's more than one per day! I'm sure she is submitting the same piece to multiple places, and tweaking it for reuse, but still-- I am feeling challenged. I am not going to raise my bar just yet, but I am doubling down on making those subs this month.
I am feeling a little overwhelmed by the number of unfinished projects I have going. I feel the need to finish them and get them out, but keep switching from project to project, getting each closer, but not yet done. Hoping to overcome any internal blocks I may be putting up myself, as a self-sabotage or procrastination.
Every time I look to submit my poetry, I get weird about it. It's personal writing. It feels more personal and more vulnerable than prose, even my memoir stuff. So, when I look at publications, I feel like I am not ready, or maybe I'm not a real poet (old fears about not going to college), and they aren't good enough, or I don't have enough good, finished poems. I am taking a Hugo House class this weekend on Poetry Revision, so hopefully that will help me get over that doorstep to publishing poetry.
So, that's where I'm at in my writing journey. I have more plans for revision and submission in June, and plans for a new screenplay project in July.
