Running in the Dark

It takes a bit of pushing to make myself leave the warmth of my house to run in the dark, which I don’t love to do but sometimes it’s the hour that I have the time to go. At first, I don’t have much gas in me, and it’s a slog. It feels like I have way too long to go—and it seems unending. My legs feel tight, and my pace is slow. But of course it makes sense that the beginning would be the hardest since it’s the point where I am furthest from the end.

But there is a point—it’s about a third of the way through my running route—where I turn a corner, figuratively and literally, and it all starts to feel manageable even though I have more than halfway to go. I always think to myself at that point, I can do this. And then I do.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about that point in my run—that place where I make a turn from I’m-not-sure-if-I-can-do-this to believing I can. I’ve been battling the winter blues these last few months, on and off, and there are days when I am perfectly happy, and then other days when I cannot see the end of the emotional darkness. Sometimes my old tricks don’t work: stay busy, dive into work, keep moving, call a friend. Sometimes the darkness ebbs in beneath the doors I shut to keep it out. Sometimes the blues are triggered by an event, and sometimes they just find me for no discernible reason.

I have a book that I often turn to that is focused on getting through these times, and one thing it advocates is not looking ahead, but focusing on this moment and then the next and the next: all you have to do is get through the next few hours, and then all you have to do is get through the day.

I took my run today and it felt easier than other days, but still, I was wanting to reach that corner, that place where I make a shift. I ran down a hill and then up another, and that second hill was long and steep and hard. But I did it, knowing up ahead, not too far away, was that corner. Suddenly I was there, and though I had two-thirds of my run left, I thought, I can do this. Though it was dark, light shone in the houses’ windows, and the cold made me feel alive, and I ran until I could finally see the end up ahead.

(Photo credit: Kevin Fitzgerald from Unsplash.com)

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UPCOMING ONLINE WRITING WORKSHOPS

Let’s Write Together!
Tuesdays at noon EST (on Zoom): February 22; March 1, 8, 15, 29
Having a hard time finding inspiration and motivation to write? Join me for any (or all) of these online one-hour sessions on Tuesdays at noon EST. We’ll talk about a piece of writing, I will give you a prompt, and then you will WRITE in the genre of your choosing. These workshops are in partnership with Press 53. Cost: $10/session. Register for any of them here.

"These workshops have been excellent, and they are exactly what I need in the middle of my busy work day." —J.B.

The Year I Was a Submission Machine

Here we are again, my annual acceptance/rejection blog post where I summarize the results from last year’s literary submissions. This is where I tell that you that no literary magazines turned down my work because, you know, it’s my work and my work is PERFECT. And this is where I also tell you that all the big publishers are emailing me, Oprah is is calling, and I’ve been nominated for a Pulitzer or one of those other little ho-hum prizes.

Or . . . this is where I tell you the truth: a writer’s world is filled with rejection, and I have yet to have a year where I don’t receive many more rejections than acceptances. I expect no less. And I am proud of my rejections, especially since—and you who are my long-time blog readers know this—I aim for 100 rejections a year.

Believe me, I made that goal in 2021. But, as always, there’s more to the story. 

So let’s start with a short jaunt down memory lane: the year before last (2020), I received 88 rejections and 2 acceptances. Eek. I didn’t submit enough to reach 100 rejections, but with that track record, surely I would have.

In 2021 my goal was to get some of my stories published and, more importantly, to get a third to half of the poems in my second poetry manuscript individually published. (Why? Because it helps to have some of the poems in a book published individually in literary magazines in order to interest a press in publishing your whole collection.) This meant that, especially in the spring and summer, I submitted more widely and frequently. I was a submission machine. If a person built muscles from submitting, I would be busting out of my clothes like the Hulk. 

A few highlights before I get to the 2021 numbers: One of my poems won an award from Alan Squire Publishing and was nominated for a Pushcart. I got a second poem into my dream publication The Sun after another round of attempts. I finally got a piece into The Pinch after many tries. I loved all the journals from which I got acceptances. Because I had researched each of these journals ahead of time, I knew that getting a piece accepted would be a gift, and it was. A big thank you to all the editors who accepted my work.

Now let’s get to the numbers. Drum roll, please. 

In 2021, I received a total of 174 rejections. And yes, that’s a big, fat number, but I also received 30 acceptances. Woooo hoooo!!! I usually have a 10% acceptance rate, but in 2021 it was better. A second wooooo hooooo! As for my goals, I got one story accepted and more than a third of the poems from my second poetry manuscript accepted to be individually published in literary magazines. I’m calling all this a win.

The takeaway? Keep trying, don’t take rejections personally, and never let a no stop you from believing that a yes is possible. Because it always is.

(photo credit: Dayne Topkin from Unsplash.com)

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UPCOMING (ONLINE) WRITING SEMINARS

To Give or Not to Give

Years ago, my family used to exchange Christmas presents: everyone gave everyone else something. Then one year, we decided to pick names, except no one wanted to draw names from a hat. Or maybe I just didn’t. There’s one person in my family who is very hard to shop for (you know who you are if you’re reading this!), so I wanted someone else’s—anyone else’s—name. 

The truth is a lot of us were hard to shop for, not because we were picky, but we were all adults and had jobs, so if we really wanted something, we saved for it and got it ourselves. Ye ol’ gift card became the gift of choice. It was easy! I loved it! Shopping for gifts wasn’t taking so much time, and then my sister complained one year, “All we’re doing is exchanging money.” She was right.

So then we moved to just doing stocking stuffers for each other, and I think we set a limit of $10, but some people adhered to that and some people didn’t, and my husband never knew what to get my family members, so I ended up shopping for both of our gifts to everyone else.

And then I became The Grinch. I decided one year that my husband and I wanted out of the gift/stocking stuffer exchange. “But then you won’t have anything to open,” one of my family members said to me. “Don’t you want to open something on Christmas morning?”

No, in fact, I did not. 

My family members continued to exchange gifts among themselves, and my husband and I sat with my family through the unwrapping of gifts. Did it bother us? Not a bit. Sure, we didn’t get any presents, but we also hadn’t had to try and figure out what to get everyone else. I found I was more relaxed through December. I loved it.

Gifts, apparently, are not my love language.

My husband and I long ago stopped giving each other gifts on special occasions. Not that we don’t do many other things for each other—or, often, buy something for the other. It just doesn’t happen on birthdays, anniversaries, or Christmas. And we both like it that way. There’s no pressure to find the exact right thing to tell the other you care. He does plenty for me all year round—fixes things around the house, watches a silly show just because I want to, does all the driving on long road trips, walks with me every morning, makes me coffee on Saturdays and Sundays, cheers me on in my writing career. I’m good with that. I’m more than good.

I love seeing my family on holidays—we don’t live in the same place, so it’s a big gift just to see them, to talk in person, to give each other hugs. 

My family eventually stopped the whole stocking stuffer exchange. We focus on what we will cook, what we will do, how many days together we’ll have.

Photo credit: Madison Kaminski

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Upcoming Online Seminars

Let’s Write Together!
Tuesdays at noon EST (on Zoom): December 7, 14, 21, 28; January 4, 11, 18
Having a hard time finding inspiration and motivation to write? Join me for any (or all) of these online one-hour sessions on Tuesdays at noon EST. We’ll talk about a piece of writing, I will give you a prompt, and then you will WRITE. These workshops are in partnership with Press 53. Cost: $10/session. Register for any of them here.

(NEW!) Take Two: More Tools & Techniques for Your Flash Nonfiction Toolbox
Sunday, January 2, 3-4:30 p.m. EST (online)
In this seminar, we’ll mine more powerful flash pieces for effective techniques you can use in your own writing. You’ll also be given a flash nonfiction prompt and time to write so you can take what you’ve learned and begin a first flash draft during class. (This class builds on my other seminar, “Moments that Matter: an Introduction to Flash Nonfiction,” but is not required to attend). Cost $30. Register here.

Make Your Titles Do More of the Heavy Lifting
Saturday, February 5, 10 a.m.-noon EST
Titles should serve your poetry and prose rather than simply helping to navigate the contents page. Using poetry titles as examples so we can cover more ground during this seminar, together we'll look at titles that work hard and offer zing and pizzazz so that your own titles will entice readers and better serve your writing. What is covered in this seminar applies to prose—especially flash fiction, flash nonfiction, short stories, and personal essays. This seminar is in partnership with the Knoxville Writers’ Guild. Register here.

Prompt-Writing like Speed-Dating: Prompt, Write, Next, Prompt, Write, Next
Tuesday, January 25, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. EST on Zoom
If you’ve attended Let’s Write Together with me, you’ll recognize the format: I’ll share a piece of writing to inspire you, offer a prompt related to it, and you will have time to write. Except I’ll be offering a new piece and prompt every 10-12 minutes during this 1.5-hour workshop. Think of it like speed dating—there’s another piece and prompt ready to inspire you just around the corner, with time for sharing at the end. This workshop is in partnership with Press 53. Cost: $30. Register here.

(NEW!) Addressing the “You” in Flash Nonfiction
Sunday, February 6, 2-4:00 p.m. EST on Zoom
In this seminar, we will look at flash essays that address a “you” in the piece (in some cases, this is called a literary apostrophe). Who the “you” is varies from piece to piece. We’ll look at whom each writer is addressing and pull out the strategies these writers use to draw out the reader’s emotions and tell these short, compelling true stories. You’ll have time in class to try your hand at drafting a flash piece that addresses your own “you.” Cost $40. Register here.