Editing & Submissions

Do you have someone edit your submissions before you submit? I’m curious about this as I’ve been working hard to continually submit this year. I’m talking specifically about contest calls and themed submission calls for lit mags – not full-length manuscripts for agents/publishers.

I find that the way I submit happens organically. I get loads of emails that are subscriptions to writing blogs/magazines/groups that offer lists of contests and submission calls. When I make time to scan the options, which could be a scheduled ‘submit day’ or if I find I have some time and I’m feeling confident about submitting (which is very unpredictable!), I think about the genre of writing and what I have available to submit and/or, if I make time, I write something new that fits the call or contest theme. Typically, if I’m writing something new, it’s for a short submission call: a poem or flash fiction (fiction/non-fiction under 1,000 words).

If I’m submitting poetry that I’ve already written and/or submitted (that’s been rejected. Wah. Wah.), I will always do an edit of the poem(S). I find there’s always something that can be tweaked. And, usually, when I’m submitting, it’s either very close to the deadline or actually on the day of the deadline. In these cases, I usually don’t send my writing to someone else to look at and edit because there’s just not time.

Buuuuut, there are times that I do request this fast and furious look-over from a writing friend because a) I know I can’t see any spelling errors or grammar issues because I’ve been staring at the words too long and b) I need an extra boost of loving support from someone before I hit ‘send’.

In most cases though, I don’t share what I’m submitting to someone else for a quick edit/feedback when I’m submitting on the fly.

What is your process in this regard?

I feel like for this kind of submission process, that is: going organically with your ‘today-I’m-going-to-submit-something’ flow, and looking at what’s available to submit to in your inbox, it’s always been my practice to keep it a solitary mission. Because of timing. Because of the thrill of submitting on the fly. Because of the organic nature of the choosing and the trust in the craft that I’ve been honing for years.

Now, if you’ve read any of my recent blogs, you’ll remember that my rejection rate has been 100%. *insert maniacal laugh here*. You’re probably thinking: maybe if she let someone else edit her work before she sent it out, that read would change!

Someone once said to me: You know, I’d be happy to take a look at your work before you put it out into the world. I could help make it better.

I remember distinctly feeling…offended. Oof. The ego is the real deal! Like what I choose to submit and how good it is does not need anyone’s ‘help’ to be ‘better’. The person’s kind and generous offer immediately triggered my ego, and that little writer in me who always believes her work is not good enough anyway…so why share what tender work she’s finding some kinda bravery to submit…

I also have a lot of trouble choosing what to submit…and many times, especially after I read what wins and/or what gets published, I think, damn…I have three thousand poems ‘like that’…why didn’t I submit them?

It’s a fickle, fickle world, submitting is. And I usually feel like I have no idea what I’m doing…except that there’s a huge desire to keep doing it, to keep trying, to stay hopeful.

Yes, I will not submit to certain places anymore because I’ve been rejected by them so often. Yes, I feel…incapable of writing the type of writing that gets published, especially in canlit.

Submitting anything takes…well, for me, it takes a lot of courage, which is why, I believe, I have created a system of organic, go-with-my-courage-flow style of submitting that has me not thinking, just doing the thing – sifting, writing, editing and submitting without having someone else look at it.

Alas, I did have someone look at my chapbook of poetry before I submitted it. I did this because it was a long piece of writing, because I really care deeply about the place I submitted to, and because I felt very proud of the writing. I wanted to share that before I submitted. It did shift the experience of submitting.

But I wanted to share my process with you…to see how it works for you. And to say that even after all these years of writing, after rooms with walls plastered with rejections, there is still a healthy desire to submit. There is still hope. And, that we’ve got a community of kind, generous writers here, that if you wanted someone to look over your words before you sent them out, we’re here!