Submission Sunday - November 2023

Putting it out there

Nov 19, 2023

silhouette of jumping people — Photo by Alex Guillaume on Unsplash

Are you ready to submit? Let’s do this!

Submission update: I submitted 3 times in October and still have 5 pending responses. So far in November, I have received 3 rejection letters.
I have 1 piece forthcoming in Headland Journal issue 20: “The End of Snow”
Today I submitted 4 pieces to 9 markets and revised 1 piece that has been rejected many times and needed a bit of tweaking.
How about you? Leave a comment below if you were able to submit your writing today. We will celebrate together.

A giant Shout-Out to my writing friends at Centered and my writing friends in my warrior-women writing group for submitting their work with me today! Collectively, we submitted to 20 different markets! Huzzah!

Rituals & Routines & Play

Rituals build connection, routines create a felt sense of safety, and play nourishes creativity. Yet, as writers, we tend to ignore one or more of these in our practice. We learned early to associate routines with work, reserve rituals for special occasions, and consider play unproductive and immature. Schools did more than kill our creativity; they converted routine into drudgery, diminished the importance of ritual, and suffocated our sense of play.

But if we want to build a sustainable and nourishing creative practice, we must lean into routine and ritual and relearn how to play. But don’t panic… Breathe…. This isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition; you don’t have to do everything at once. (Yes, I was looking in the mirror when I wrote that.)

Even though I teach these things every year to teachers, students, and other writers, the truth is I sometimes have a hard time following my own advice. I get how hard this can be. I am a prime example of a writer who ignores routine, eschews rituals, and hasn’t played since I was five (honestly, I’m no longer sure I know how.) I am in a constant cycle of reflection, reevaluation, and relearning. Buy hey, who we are is not where we are in the journey.

So, I invite you to try these three things with me this next month as we head into December:

Create a morning routine that includes something creative. Be liberal on how you define “creative”. (Thank you, Chelene Knight, for that advice.) Maybe creative looks like 5 minutes of dream journaling. Perhaps creative looks like singing in the shower. Maybe creative looks like doodling while you are waiting for your coffee. Start simple. Write down your routine and stick to it for the next month (adjust it if you need to)
Create a pre-writing ritual. Keep it simple but do it EVERY single time you sit down to write. This will help you connect with your inner creativity, nourish your intuitive nature, and develop a healthy relationship with your writing practice. This could be as simple as lighting a candle and centering yourself with a mindfulness exercise before writing. Or, burn a specific incense before you sit down to write Or listen to a particular playlist. The options are unlimited. Just make sure it is something you can do EVERY SINGLE TIME.
Do something silly or fun every day, just for fun, just to laugh. In fact, keep a play journal. That’s right folks… keep track of things that make you laugh and different ideas for how to play. I started doing this and realized very quickly that I was WAY too serious. I am relearning how to play. Wanna join me?

As we incorporate routines, rituals and play into our writing lives, it will become easier to attain that elusive flow state, tap into our creativity, and live the kind of writing life we desire. Let’s check in next month and share how it went. We’ve got this!

If you didn’t have anything ready to submit today, no worries… we will submit our work again on Sunday, December 16th.

Happy Writing!

True Alchemy

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