2024 is my year of short stories. In this weekly series, I talk about the stories I’m working on, from idea and draft to submission.
- Stories in Progress – 4
- Submissions This Week – 3
- Submissions Currently Out – 9
- Acceptances This Year – 1
- Rejections This Year – 17 (7 personalized)
Goal
Last week I set myself a word count goal: 1,000 words per day. Sadly, I only managed about 50% of that. Most of those words were on my newest story, temp titled The Scout. So far, it’s one of those stories where I am really enjoying certain aspects, and other aspects are very obviously falling short. Stories like that just need time and effort to find the pieces that will click into place and make the whole thing work.
Even though I didn’t meet my goal, it was a useful motivator, so I’m setting the same goal this week (1k words/day).
Submissions and Responses
It continues to be quiet. I received no responses on my current submissions; maybe the editors are all enjoying the last few weeks of summer.
I have purposely stuck to publications that accept simultaneous submissions for my drabbles so that I could submit widely. I sent each of these three stories out again this week. Of course, Murphy’s Law of Short Story Submissions ensures that after weeks with no responses, I’ll eventually get them all back at once.
Goals for Next Week
Once again, I’m shooting for 1,000 words on my works in progress per day, and planning to send out one or two more simultaneous submissions.
Words Deferred 