I was preparing to talk to you about setting goals, but while I was researching this topic I ended up at Amazon buying a day planner.
The level of specificity involved in choosing an ordinary day planner almost felt like choosing a car. There are Weekly Planners, Two Day Spread Planners, One Page Per Day and deluxe models. Then there are Themed Planners.
The real point is that once I placed the order I remembered I had a simple goal. To write this article about setting goals. Before I ramble too far off topic this article wasn’t a goal.. it was a task... What I came up short on was Focus.
Join us on Sunday so we can discuss the difference between a task and a goal and why each are important because I don’t think a goal can exist without its Tasks.
2019 is almost here. Many of us wrap up the year by taking a sort of inventory of progress we made during the year and making promises to do it better in the future. As a writer, writing and sending submissions out into the world creates the task of managing them.
Some of the most brilliant writers fail to get published, and not because their work isn’t ready for publication, but because they fail to submit their work.
10 Writing Submission Strategies Include the Following
Double Up
Follow Up
Revise
Send Your Best Work
Keep Your Work Out There
Do Market Research
Look for Limits
Keep Track of Where Things Are
Submit Early
Submit Often
Submission Tracking
In the olden days I used a photocopied form for collecting information on various submission opportunities. When money permitted I bought the most recent issue of a magazine. I’d comb though it looking for hints at themes of upcoming issues. I would note the name of a particular editor
and worry over names without obvious gender clues. The library is a great place for viewing several issues at a time.
After market research I would take out another photocopied sheet and I’d note the who, what, when and where to send it. I’d put together a query letter with a paragraph to clearly show I had looked through past issues of their magazine. Sometimes I would mention an article well done. I’d put a note on the sheet of paper as the submission
and SASE dropped into the mailbox. This is how I tracked my submissions. I’d make a note to myself when time ran out and I assumed I ended up in slush and went to the next publication on my list.
I’d spend time between submissions, re-writing things with different slants or cleaning up 10% of the words in a short story.
Today, there are plenty of ways to track your submission.Computers, cell phones and actual programs are everywhere.
Tonight’s topic will look at Query Tracker, Writer’s Database, Duotrope, The (Submission) Grinder and the Story Tracker Mobile App.
