I've Generated New Work: Now What?

Behind the Scenes of a Writer's Life

Behind the Scenes

A couple of years ago, my then-85-year-old dad was scheduled for a senior driving assessment, which included cognitive tests, a driving simulator, and, finally, a road test. (He passed all the assessments with flying colors.) When he initially told me about it, I asked if I could attend the first assessment appointment (which was everything but the road test) because it seemed like fun fodder for a story, so he asked the medical office issuing the assessment if his daughter could attend, casually mentioning that the experience might end up in a story. When he relayed this interaction to me, I said, “Oh, did you tell them I was a writer?”

My dad’s answer: “No. I just told them that you sometimes write little things and occasionally send them off here and there…”

Tell me you don’t understand what a creative writer does without saying you don’t understand what a creative writer does!

A Look at the Numbers

I’m currently at 130 rejections for the year (my goal was 200). And I’ve had 31 stories published in 2024 so far (with one more due out before the end of the year), my most recent publication being “The Day I Went Missing,” in the anniversary/holiday-themed edition of Gooseberry Pie Lit.

That’s not exactly writing little things and “occasionally” sending them off. Most writers will recognize that with numbers like those, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes!

For one thing, prepping a story for submission and finding the right place(s) to submit it can take literal hours. It can be a time-consuming and frustrating process, especially if you’re trying to place a story that’s been rejected from multiple journals. (That said, I personally find the submission process energizing, motivating, and, overall, a thrilling part of the writing process—the rejections included. But I may be in the minority!)

And, of course, generating new work can be both exhilarating and challenging in and of itself. Even if you “just” write “little things” (to use my dad’s phrasing) like flash fiction, there is nothing little about what goes into the whole process, from draft to publication.

A bumper sticker I recently got: “I’m a writer. Anything you say or do may be used in a story.”

I’ve Generated New Work…

I spent November deeply entrenched “behind the scenes,” writing thirty no-stakes story drafts in thirty days.

If you did something similar, regardless of genre or how many drafts you wrote, give yourself a pat on the back! Even if you only wrote one or two new drafts, celebrate that success!

During this time of generating new work, I did very little else writing-wise, as I do also work/have a business to manage. That is to say, I did almost no revision or submissions. I also had no publications in November. Because I was neither submitting nor having anything published, I felt an almost stagnant kind of energy surrounding my writing practice, momentarily forgetting that this behind-the-scenes work is essential; literally nothing happens without it.

…Now What??

December 1st hit and I had an almost instant feeling of overwhelm. The overwhelm was partly due to the holidays and general end-of-year stress, but the other part of it was that thirty new drafts is a lot.

Where do I start with them? How do I start?

Not every draft needs to go somewhere (and it’s always okay to let stories go), but for writers who set challenges for themselves (like NaNoWriMo or other generative challenges), the goal is generally production of new work with the eventual goal of doing something with it, e.g., publication. So, while not all of these drafts may end up as a published story, they were all written with that possibility in mind. Which means I need to eventually look at and do something with all or some of them!

Because I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with these thirty new drafts, I took a few days to think and regroup. Here’s a brief look into my thought process during that time:

Step 1: Don’t panic. Those thirty drafts aren’t going anywhere.

Step 2: Wait (See Step 1). There’s a certain joy in waiting, in being away from a piece for a while and then coming back to it. Putting space between a first draft and revision can also help us look more objectively at what we’ve written, making revision more effective.

Step 3: Review short- and long-term writing goals. Knowing what our specific writing goals are can help us to prioritize and plan how to reach them.

Short- and Long-Term Goals

It might sound silly, but it took me a couple of days to complete Step 1. And while Step 2 might not seem so different from Step 1, once I got through the not-panicking stage, I did find joy in waiting—in not doing anything in regards to my own writing. Once a sense of peace and calm hit me, I knew I could move on to Step 3.

Knowing your writing goals is essential. (And, importantly, not every writer has the same goal(s)!)

Once I reviewed my goals, I knew exactly what I needed to do. I needed to hold off on tackling my November drafts and, instead, focus on submitting work.

I’d received a handful of rejections in November, which I had duly recorded on my submissions tracking sheet; I’d also received a number of rejections earlier in the year that I hadn’t yet done anything with yet (i.e., I hadn’t revised or sent them off somewhere else). In fact, I only had three or four stories out for submission (compare that to 2023, when I averaged 30-35 stories out for submission at any one time), and I only had one story forthcoming (my story “The Body Shop” will be out in Cleaver next week!).

Once I established what my priority was—to get back into my rigorous submissions routine—I was able to swiftly take action. And, happily, within the last week, I’ve submitted seven stories to various lit journals—and have already received one acceptance and one rejection! (I quickly found another place to send the rejected piece and sent it back out straightaway.)

And now I feel better poised to tackle my November drafts and move forward toward both my short- and long-term writing goals.

The Bottom Line

Don’t underestimate the behind-the-scenes work of writing; that behind-the-scenes work is the essence of writing. Just because others can’t see (or understand) what you’re doing as a writer doesn’t make the process (or the product) any less important.

Write on, my writerly friends!