I started drafting this post at the end of December 2021, and then all of a sudden, I realized that it’s already past February and I still haven’t posted my 2021 writing year in review. I think this annual post is important because many of my posts here are about my acceptances. While my publications are definitely something I want to share with you so that we can celebrate together, the writing life does not only consist of acceptances (as much as I wish!). So, I started calculating the statistics of my submissions last year (2020 Writing Year in Review), and I want to keep the tradition going.
I really pushed to have at least 10 submissions out at all times (sometimes much more), so I sent out almost 3 times as many submissions in 2021 than 2020. To go along with that, however, I had almost 3 times as many rejections and a much lower acceptance rate.
Writing submissions rolled over from 2020: 12 (1 from 2019)
Writing submissions in 2021 (including fiction, non-fiction, and poetry): 72 (some poetry submissions were multiple poems at once)
Non-writing creative submissions in 2021: 13 (a mix of photography, fellowships, and creative freelance jobs)
Total submissions tracked in 2021: 97
Acceptances: 4 (2 fiction (both flash) and 2 poems)
Rejections/Abandonments: 65 (11 positive)
Still under consideration: 26
Acceptance Rate: 5.8%
Shortest submission to decision: 2 days
Longest submission: 555 days (this was a fic that I submitted in 2019, and received the decision early in 2021)
New writing: 26 (5 flash fiction, 1 fiction, 2 non-fiction, and 18 poems)
Main takeaways and highlights from 2021:
- I wrote my flash story, “A Safe Place to Remember” specifically for the Jersey Pines Ink contest. As a nod to an already-accepted story at the time, “How (Not) to Rescue a Princess”, I set the flash story in the same dragon-universe, with a tiny allusion to the dragon in my “Princess” story. To my surprise and delight, “A Safe Place to Remember” won first place in the contest. So, both stories that take place in the same universe were published in the same year. I smile to myself every time I think about these two dragons.
- I wrote so many poems this year because I had fun participating in the Poetry Marathon (mentioned here). It really pushed me to write, got me involved in a really supportive and positive community, and got me out of my poetry slump. Then, I promptly fell back in the slump and wasn’t able to complete the Poem a Day I started in November. Life can get crazy, but I don’t beat myself about it anymore. As long as I keep pushing forward (even if it’s a single tiny step or a single written poem/page in the last however-many months), it’s still a forward direction, and I’m happy.
- I received a lot of positive rejections this year. Positive rejections are kind of this weird purgatory where I’m bummed that my piece was rejected, but I’m happy and appreciative that the editors liked my piece enough to send me a personal comment or put my piece through to a second round of review. I received many more positive rejections this year than in past years, and I’m hopeful that this means that I’m heading in the right direction in developing my writing style and skill. The positive rejection that was the most memorable was for the Sesame Writers Room Fellowship. I reached out of my comfort zone to teach myself how to write a script. Writing a script is quite different than writing fiction because I have to think in terms of the visual and sound components and figure out how to depict internal qualities and thoughts in an outward manner. I was so happy to actually reach the second round of review for this, and then I utterly bombed the interview (my interview skills definitely need work). Considering I had never done something like this before, and it was for something that was so important to me as a writer, a parent, and a POC woman, this was a great positive rejection and something I will carry with me in the future.
Looking forward, I have a lot of projects on my plate, both writing and others. Whether I’ll complete them is up in the air, but I like filling my life with creative endeavors. Hope you are having a productive, creative, and/or restful year so far!