Week 7 — Year of Short Stories 2026

2026 is another year of short stories. In this weekly series, I talk about short story writing, from idea and draft to submission.

This is week seven: Feb. 15 – Feb. 22.

Stats

• Stories Finished: 2
• Submissions Currently Out: 2
• Submissions Total: 2
• Rejections:4
• Acceptances: 0

Goals and Results

The goals I set for last week were:

1. Finish Red Eyes.
2. Finish Taco Cat.
3. Continue writing Out of Towner.
4. Get a new story in the Critters queue.

This week felt good. I am finished with Red Eyes, and I think I can safely say that this is the most work I’ve had to put into a story to make it work. It’s a relief to be done with it.

Taco Cat Employee Manual v7.1 (a much shorter story) made it through the Critters queue this week, and I received 11 responses—a pretty decent turn-out. It was mostly well-received, and only needed some minor tweaks. Quite a contrast between these two stories. I trimmed it down to an even 1,000 words so I can submit it to most flash fiction listings.

I already had another story, F-TIB, ready for the critters queue, so I sent that off and should get feedback in mid-March.

Finally, I sat and stared at Out of Towner, a story comprised (so far) of a single introductory scene, and felt completely indifferent to it. So that was the one goal I didn’t meet. This week, I’ll have to decide if I can find a spark of excitement in it, or if I should set it aside and pick something else to work on.

Submissions and Rejections

I received a response to the light rewrite that was requested for Incident at Pleasant Hills. Unfortunately, it was a rejection. This was a bummer, but they had very kind words for the story so I can’t really complain.

I submitted one story, Tom, Dick, and Larry, to a themed drabble contest. It has been challenging to find publications interested in drabbles, and they frequently don’t offer payment. (It’s pretty funny, since pro rates on 100 words come out to only $8.) This contest pays and the theme fits the story, so it’s a nice find.

I haven’t yet looked through the listings with Red Eyes or Taco Cat in mind, but I plan to send them out in the upcoming week.

Next Week

My goals for next week are:

1. Submit stories – at least three
2. Submit some critiques
3. Continue writing Out of Towner, or start a new story.