My first publication (in a magazine with some legit circulation) was when I got honorable mention in a Writer’s Digest limerick contest.
It went like this:
Kirk’s Final Entry
Here it is Star Date one billion point nine
I’ve been stuffed in my uniform one final time
I’ve had it with Klingon and Romulan scum
With tricorder’s whistling and “phasers on stun”
Yes, I’m retiring, but forget celebration
Closing in, at warp speed, is “The Next Generation”
I know. It’s not brilliant. It’s silly and geeky. But it was selected and got printed in an actual magazine. It made me feel great.
The day I got a phone call from a magazine that was going to send me a check for an essay they were publishing? I was thrilled!
One simple fact, fellow writers: nothin’ ever got published sittin’ on your hard drive.
I’ve declared 2024 The Year of Submitting.
To date, I have ten submissions “in the air.” My plan is to just keep at it, relentlessly. Polish up what I feel is the best work I’m capable of (poems, short stories, essays), research the marketplace and pick what seems to be the best fit … then submit, submit, submit.
The odds, I realize, are awful. I’m not responsible for the end result. But I am responsible for the writing and the submitting. If I submit nothing, the odds of publication are zero.
Bonus: there’s a buzz in just sending it off. I guarantee you’ll feel it. That sliver of literary hope now rides upon the whimsical winds of invisible editorial staffs across the country (or even the planet).
And, while you’re waiting to hear back? Keep writing and submitting!
Are you submitting your stuff?
JRW
J. R. Wormington: Author, earthling 