A Submission a Day: Final Thoughts

I love the very idea of getting a story published. I can't think of a single writer who doesn't like this. I love the small literary magazines too. I love that so many of them are looking for writers of marginalized communities. I am tickled to think that so many magazines and editors are after the same thing that I'm after: something different, something new, something with flavor.

I don't fear for the future as some of my colleagues do. I don't think that AI will take over. And who cares if it does? Once the power goes out, so will the computers. I also think that people who read literary magazines are looking for something a machine cannot provide. When you get involved with a literary magazine, what you really want is community.

As for me? Well, it's been a fascinating glimpse into who I was as a person and as a writer. Sure, I have written a great many short stories. I can tell with utmost honesty, and this is not a self deprecating thing, that most of these stories are not very good. I have to ask myself, what was important when I wrote them? Was the product important? No, it was the process. I have always been the writer that will write ten stories and pick the best one and I feel like that provides me with better odds than to just write one.

I will not say that this is the end of my writing of short stories. I will not say that I'm eager to write more in the future either. I have no plans to continue writing them. If I've learned anything over the years what it takes to produce a good short story is to read a bunch of them, and then start writing a bunch of them. I'm no longer willing to do that.

What's going to happen with the stories I've put out for consideration this month? I won't know the outcome for weeks, possible months. The few editors that have sent rejections already I am very grateful to. If an editor is not interested in a story, the most considerate thing they can do is to reject it quickly.

I started this because I wanted to be relevant. Have I become relevant? Again, I won't know for months.

What I do know, I've been enjoying this process immensely.