Plans, Schedules, and the Sheets to Track Them

Submitting Sunday #3 – August

Well, I can check another query off my list as a “No thank you.” I appreciate having clear markers, like an email response or a note that if no reply has been made after X number of weeks, it’s a rejection; it’s hard when there’s no measure and you just have to assume that it’s a no and move on, especially with how backlogged places can get! I’ve had no bites on the queries I’ve sent out this year (I started small and it was only a few), but I’m planning to cast out a wider net later this month. I’m not sure where the fishing metaphors are coming from. Must be from reopening the pirate novel for revisions. Arrr. 🙂

I have this month to finish my Queer Arthurian Tale before the deadline for Passing Strange: Queer Weird Arthurian Tales, about two months to finish my Writers of the Future, Quarter 3 submission, and a little longer to attempt something for WordFire Press’ new student anthology, Superheroes, Super Problems—I’ve had a story published with them before for Chaotic Cupids, and some of my cohort had stories published in this year’s Into the Deep Dark Woods. This particular theme is a little outside of my wheelhouse, so I’m curious to give it a go and see what comes out of it.

It has been a challenge, juggling the long- and short-form. Last year when most of my focus was on short stories and novellas, I was able to produce a lot of new fiction. Once I started drafting my thesis novel, the submissions slowed down, and that has persisted into this year even though my revisions are behind me. I’m trying a different approach with the back half of this year and adding some of these open calls I’m most excited for to my tracking sheet.

Oh, my tracking sheet. I gave it a nice overhaul last week and I’m loving it.

I keep track of all of my submitting and querying in an excel spreadsheet. I have a tab for submissions each year and a tab for queries, I fill it up with the open calls I’m interested in and the agents who seem like a good fit, and then update as I submit, hear back one way or another, and delete if I didn’t have anything to send in. For submissions, I have columns for the publication/title, deadlines (and when they open usually), if they accept simultaneous submissions, a place to hold some brainstorming or story ideas, a column to link the story I end up submitting, the date I submit, whether it’s accepted or rejected, what the pay rate is, and what genre or type of writing the call is looking for, plus word count. Some of these publications are regularly occurring and it makes it convenient to be able to move the list into the next year.

Now, for my thesis novel last year, I made a word count tracker to try and stay motivated. That worked so well that I’ve recreated it for the next draft I want to work on (Working Title: Barbarian Menace! A Sword & Sorcery Fantasy adventure), but also added a section to track my revision progress on an older novel draft from before I started my MFA journey.

Measuring revision progress has always felt challenging to me. I’ve tried to do this by tracking time spent working in the document, and now I’m trying to track by pages, with a goal of just 3-5 pages a day. I anticipate this getting tricky as I have to jump around through the document, adding/deleting/adjusting inconsistencies, but I’m going to try it so as to have something measurable to see my progress. I’m not sure exactly how much time I spent in revision on my thesis novel, but I’d like to get an idea for that, and so I’ll be tracking the time spent (without a goal in mind). I’ve just decided that right now.

I’ve added the three short stories for the open calls mentioned above onto my tracker for this first month of August, as well. I’m hoping that will motivate me to get some new fiction finished and should give me plenty of time to adjust, maybe seek out some feedback, and edit (much less daunting to edit a short story than a novel, have to say) before these deadlines start coming up.

So, while I’m not doing much submitting, I’m trying to build a schedule that will let me balance multiple projects, which is the overarching goal right now, and hopefully that will make the second half of this year (and next!) a more productive time for submissions. A member of my cohort and I both want to aim for 60 submissions next year, which comes out to about 5 stories a month. Considering I did 31 submissions last year, this feels achievable—I also have a lot of fiction on hand, now, stories that haven’t sold yet, that might need a refresh or a revision, but are otherwise ready to send out.

The miscellanea:

• I’m all moved into the new apartment and I love it.
• I graduated from Western Colorado University and my last residency of my MFA is behind me. I am already missing everyone so much, but I think we have some solid plans for staying connected. I expect to be in Gunnison again next summer to see the last few of my original cohort graduate along with the cohort behind me, the (unhinged, lovingly) Wizard Lizards—they are a pretty fantastic group of humans, gotta say!
• School is starting back up, but I feel a little more confident this year and I won’t have the demands of 12-13 credit hours to contend with alongside my regular work duties, and that already feels better. I’m also really excited to start working with a new organization to teach Composition 101; I’ve been curious about working in higher ed and this feels like a good place to start.

See you next time for the Suffering Issue!

Image Description: The graduating Genre Fiction cohort (Eggs & Flour) standing behind three of the Genre Fiction faculty, including the director and my thesis mentor. In the background, there is a banner for the Graduate Program in Creative Writing and a whiteboard.

Image Description: A photo taken from the graduation stage looking out at the seating of the theater. The first several rows are the graduating students, many in regalia with their newly awarded hoods. In the back rows are family, friends, and other GPCW students.

Image Description: A view looking west from a rooftop area at my new apartment building. There is a cross section of streets, several cars parked along the side of the street for an event, small houses and parking lots in the foreground. There is a view of another apartment and event center and Weidner Field. The mountains in the background are cloudy and dramatic following an earlier storm.