Why Publish

I've been thinking about this idea of publication and why it's such a popular idea among writers. I made a point in one of my blogs how writing for yourself is important, which is true, but ironic, because many writers are writing for an audience. That knowledge, that someone else will read their words, changes the writing, no matter how much a writer tries to 'write for themselves'. I think the only truly authentic writing may be what we put in our diaries and other places we think no one will see. This isn't a necessarily a bad thing either. Knowing there will be an audience puts pressure on a writer to make their words more accessible, cohesive, and just generally better.
But why do so many people want to get published? There's obviously a certain ego-factor, of testing your writing against the big bad publishing world, but there must something about the idea of other people reading your writing that is enticing. I included publishing in this project because it was something I had never done before and I wanted to try it under some guidance before I was older and without the opportunity to access the resources my Signature project provides. But still, the idea of publishing is enticing to me, even if I don't know entirely why.

Next Steps

I met with my mentor on Tuesday and we discussed what to do during this 'wait time'. Some of the places I submitted work to will respond fairly 'quickly' (2 months), others will take much longer (6 months). It's a little frustrating because I want to know the results right now, but I also think this 'wait time' will be interesting as I can be flexible with what I want to do.
My mentor and I decided that looking into contests I can enter my work into would be a good next step. I will begin researching once the semester ends (8 days until Revels!!!) and return from winter break with a list of possibilities, much as I did while looking for literary magazines. What I think will be interesting about contests is if they have more narrow requirements-theme, line, etc.-than literary magazines and how I will work around that.

Thoughts on Revisions

Instinctively, my deadline makes me nervous, especially when I'm revising the final drafts of my work because I feel like every detail has to be perfect so the reader can understand and enjoy the story. I struggled a lot with the idea of ever getting the story ready enough to actually publish. To me, a story is never really finished because there's always something left to adjust, some detail to correct, the necessity of a particular word to consider. I worried a lot about the reader's perspective on the story and if people would like it and if it would ever get accepted somewhere.
Before submitting my stories, I concluded that my original idea isn't necessarily wrong. I'm not sure a story is ever really finished. If I read through the story I submitted for publication the other day, I would probably find something to change. But I also realized that the perfect story in my head won't necessarily match the perfect story in an editor or reader's head. Phrases I find smooth and understandable might seem stilted or confusing to someone else. So, while early revisions should be geared more toward considering the reader's perspective and making sure the message of the story comes across, I think final revisions should focus more on what the writer wants. Because, ultimately, the story belongs to the writer so that's the person it has to please. Making the story enjoyable for myself probably means other people will like it as well, but, more importantly, it gives me a piece of writing I can be proud of.

Submitting

I've officially submitted one story to Glimmertrain magazine, One Teen Story, and Canvas Teen Literary Journal. I still have a couple more places to submit to but my December 8 deadline isn't quite so terrifying anymore. Narrowing down the list to about 8 magazines involved trying estimate my chances of my writing being accepted at each magazine and, similar to the college process, finding safety, possible, and reach magazines that would fit my work.
Thankfully, there is a surprising amount of information on the Internet about submitting short stories. I researched everything from where to submit to how to write a cover letter for this project and was surprised by the sheer amount of information. There were multiple websites to read for almost everything I looked up. It makes sense considering how many people attempt to publish short stories but the topic also seems like such a small niche that I expected much less information. Thankfully, I was wrong.