For the Love of Writing (IWSG Dec)

Hello December! The first Wednesday of every month is Insecure Writer’s Support Group Day, and for the last month of 2021, that means we get to start December with a fantastic blog hop.

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

IWSG

Thanks to our awesome co-hosts for the December 1 posting: PJ Colando, Diane Burton, Louise – Fundy Blue, Natalie Aguirre, and Jacqui Murray.

Today I thought I’d start with an announcement I’m excited about:

My short story Weathering will feature in this fantastic Aussie-Kiwi anthology. Weathering is about a neurodiverse single mother and her struggles, set on an alternative version of Bindjareb Noongar country in Western Australia. I can’t wait to share it with you all.

In the spirit of our insecure writer’s group, I also want to share a tweet that I wrote not long before I received this acceptance:

I've had 27 rejections across various pieces since my last acceptance at the start of September. Today I received a new acceptance for a story I first subbed in August!
Just gotta keep sending those words out there, writers. It's worth it for these golden moments.😁#AmWriting

— Emma Louise Gill (@emmagillwriter) November 10, 2021

The acceptance was for another short story, to be published by an online speculative fiction magazine next year. Within a week, I had three more acceptances in hand–plus two more rejections for some of those same stories.

It’s all about finding the right people for your work.

Thus we come to this month’s optional question.

In your writing, what stresses you the most? What delights you?

Submissions.

Submissions are stressful. Making sure that I’m 100% ready to hit that send button is so hard. I’m never 100% ready. But it has to be done. Yet I’m always stuck thinking… what if they don’t like it? What if it takes 6 months to be rejected? What if there’s no feedback at all? (This one sucks the most: not knowing where I went ‘wrong’, even if it’s just that the writing was not to someone’s taste.)

HOWEVER.

Submissions are also the best, because every single one is evidence that I’m putting myself out there, that I’m improving my work, and that I can press that send button. Plus, acceptances are pretty amazing.

By which I mean, pop the cork run-around-the-house happy moments. And I’m not even being paid for most of them! (Does that matter? Not yet. I’d love to be paid to write for a living, but that’s a long way off, I know.)

But I love writing, and I love sending my words Out There for others to enjoy. Even if it’s stressful at times. 🙂

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How about you? What stresses and delights you about writing?

Read what other IWSG members think in answer to these questions–and more–via our blog hop.

If you’d like to know more about my thoughts on book querying–a whole other level of submitting work for publication–check out my interview in Etherea Magazine Issue 3!

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PS: I added a new page to my blog today. Head over to the Publication Index if you’d like to see a simple list of where my stories, poetry, and random musings are currently available and forthcoming.

Thank you for reading, and have a great holiday season. ❤