Let Your Writing Live: Show Your Writing

Last week on my writing coach blog, I wrote about if and when to share your writing, particularly memoir-related work. I'm writing to encourage you to share your work in 2016. For real. Just a few kind words from (not particularly close) friends have gotten me moving again.

I've been submitting my poetry manuscript about early motherhood and it has been rejected. More than once, as rejections often go. I've been feeling discouraged and annoyed by the process on so many levels.

But then I started to share the poems, poems I once felt confident about, with some new readers. One, a new mom-friend-visual artist, shared that she had similar feelings about a miscarriage and early parenthood. Another, a poet who is a colleague, noticed the timeline in a way that I hadn't looked at it.

Those discussions really invigorated me. I've been wondering if the poems were self-indulgent or no longer relevant, since that time in my life has passed. But by talking about the poems and listening to reader's reactions, I am reminded by what motivated me to write them and share them in the first place.

Sure, a reader could easily say something superficial or mean, but we'll just ignore that possibility for now and try to keep that writing high.

No, this doesn't mean that I will take the praise and stop examining and editing the poems. It means that I will do that even better this time around, in an effort to honor the poems.

We write to connect with readers. Writing is worthless if it doesn't interact with a reader and participate in that conversation. If you feel your work is ready to be submitted for publication, why not look around you for readers? Let your work live.

Submission Organization

Have you ever put together a submission for a literary magazine and then discover that it is temporarily closed to submissions? I'm often missing opportunities: I learn about them after the deadline, hope I'll remember when they reopen and then I inevitably forget. If I can remember to update and follow my new list of opportunities organized by month, I might have solved this problem.

I've started keeping an electronic document that lists when magazine submissions open, residency applications are due and other deadlines for myself (including particular writing, editing and revising goals.) Organized by month, I can look ahead to next year's residency, conference and workshop deadlines (which are often far in advance of the start dates.) You can start your own list by looking at Poets and Writers Magazine, which has a search option to  organize their Writing Contests, Grants & Awards by date due.

This is essentially, what my dad calls a "tickler" system. And yes, that phrase has always made me giggle.

Since Woman Mother Writers are particularly busy, this system also helps to make better use of free moments. If I know that I'd like to submit to a particular magazine in the near future and I have a little free time now, I can start the submission and put it aside. And with this document, that I've named, "Writing Plan," I won't forget about it.

Or at least, I probably won't.

For more on submission organization, see my writing coach post on a submission spreadsheet to keep track of your outgoing work.