Had a fun time at the writers group meeting last night. Came home flying high. For a couple hours, I edited some submissions for a lit journal we’re putting together locally, and did some redesign and relaying-out of the material before I wandered back into Word and reread a couple of my own pieces that I’d been hot to submit around to a few places. And I came to some tough decisions; to go with my head and my gut instead of my heart.
A little while ago I posted about "comeuppance" and I think that’s what I’m feeling right now. Got a little cocky with the writing. One of the pieces I was considering for submission was workshopped in my creative writing class, and personally, I thought it was one of the best I’d ever done. I wrote a post about this as well. But the thing is, in this class, and I’m not putting them down in any way, indeed, probably the fact that half of them are not really into writing although they are good writers, makes them a more honest barometer of readership opinion. The reception to this story was lukewarm at best.
What then, would I expect of a literary journal? These are pros who read thousands of stories every year. They’re looking for the creme-de-la-creme, and they can spot that within the first two sentences of reading.
Right now, because I would be up against an end of March deadline to submit, and don’t have the ideas nor the time for serious rewriting, I don’t see why I can’t just hold off till the next open submission periods, which for most journals, is in September. Maybe the pressure will be off, I’ll have learned a bit more, become a bit more skilled, and regain that confidence that’s so necessary when you’re making out those SASE’s that you hope don’t show up in your mailbox.
I do thank those who have encouraged me to go ahead, but it’s a gut feeling I have that stops me short. In the meantime, one of my latest stories will be in that lit journal we’re putting together. While that’s no great shakes since I’m one of those who have decided what is going in, it’s still seeing it in print. And there’s a lot of satisfaction in the putting together of the journal. That’ll do me for now.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology