A Week of Writing: 1/18/21 to 1/24/21

Another week of writing come and gone. Have a look.

Words to Write By

This week’s quote comes from author Jane Yolen.

“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.”

–Jane Yolen

One of the pieces of advice you’re bound to hear when you’re a writer is that you must write as often as possible, every day if you can. Now, I have some opinions on the efficacy of the every day thing, but what I like about Jane Yolen’s quote here is that she doesn’t demand narrative writing to stay in shape, just any writing. I think this is a useful bit of advice, and it’s worked well for me. On days where I’m really feeling stuck, but I want to at least get the ol’ writing muscles limbered up, I’ll work on an outline, write a blog post, even the occasional journal entry. Generally, that’s enough to get the creative energies flowing in the right direction, and often as not, I’m am able to produce some narrative fiction in the same day.

The Novel(s)

Not much work on either novel last week. I have a good reason for this . . . Okay, I have A reason for this. Whether it’s good or not is open to interpretation. I can say that what is currently holding me back should be resolved this week, and I’ll be able to get on with things.

Short Story Submissions

Pretty decent submission total last week.

• Submissions Sent: 3
• Rejections: 1
• Acceptances: 0
• Publications: 0
• Shortlist: 0
• Pending: 10

Three submission last week gives me eight for the month, and the one I sent this morning gives me nine. That’s my quota met for January, though I’m likely gonna get a few more submission out before the 31st. Only one rejection last week, and it was same-day. I keep expecting a pile of others to show up, but nothing so far. It’s looking more and more like I’m going to end January without an acceptance, which will break my twelve-month streak. Such is the gig, and I’m sure February will catch me up. 🙂

Super Secret Project

The announcement is coming very soon now. So excited to share this one with you folks.

Goals

Still keeping it simple: write, submit, revise.

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And that was my week. How was yours?