A while ago I wrote I wanted to make “submissions to 9 different editors at five magazines, plus three possible competition entries.”
Well, I didn’t bother with the competition entries. I just ran out of time and inspiration. And one of the magazines caught me out – it has a cut-off date of 25th and I let it pass because I wasn’t concentrating. I also forgot an auction in the same period. Sometimes a brain cannot hold all the infromation you need.
However, I have sent off nine submissions to the nine editors at five magazines. This suggests my original maths was wrong, but that’s the least of my worries.
So far I have had one result – a request to restructure a tanka prose. I can do that. I assume that the next two weeks will hold some mixed news – one of the editors always turns me down and I suspect I will be rejected by several others, as two submissions were written only minutes before I sent them off. This is not the way to write good poetry, but it is the way to meet targets. This month I intend writing everything I need at least two weeks before I need it so I can polish it.
I have ignored Julia and my WP reading over the last week or so, and need to catch up with both. Even as I type, she is cutting fruit for our breakfast. Time, I think, to stop typing for rest of the day and spend time on my Christmas present – a jigsaw of garden birds.
This evening I will start the rewrite and will also try to write a poem about doing jigsaws. In the life of a poet, nothing goes to waste. Then I will tell you the latest squirrel news . . .
I’ve given away all my jigsaw puzzles. And in my unit there isn’t enough room to have my computer and my dinner and a puzzle laid out. But I do love that squirrel.
Yes, we have alreday had to make some decisions on the amount of stuff we have.
Well done, but why submit to an editor who always turns you down?
It keeps me with a sense of proportion, and gives me somebody to wear down. 🙂
🙂
I look forward to the squirrel news. Fruit for breakfast sounds very healthy. I rely on porridge to get me going. Well done for getting the submissions in. I take my hat off to you.
Thank you. I will be talking about squirrels at great length in coming posts, I expect. Fruit for breakfast with weetabix is easier than making porridge, though I suspect porridge may be better for me.
I like that squirrel! Glad to hear you are getting to poems submitted and are back on the creative path, Simon.
I think my favorite jigsaw puzzle was one of a dandelion seed head in full glory. Been years since I worked on a jigsaw puzzle.
It’s been a while for me too. I used to do them with my dad in his latter years.
The writing is one of those things that gets easier as you do more. It’s just a case of getting going again. 🙂