March Madness: The Month of Submissions

A few weeks ago I planned and attended a retreat for a group of development (aka fundraising for those of you unfamiliar with the non-profit world) staff members, where we challenged each individual to bring in two 5K gifts each week for a match challenge. Now I won't get into all of the details of what a match challenge is or why this idea was particularly revolutionary to our staff. The bottom line is that as I sat in the room watching all of my peers getting psyched up about their work and the ability to set small weekly goals I realized that this was a simple tactic that could translate into my writing life.

And thus the March Madness: Month of Submissions began. Each week since I have challenged myself to submit at least two pieces of writing. Just two. That's it. And it can be any kind of writing. It is not limited to professional markets. It's not limited to fiction. It's not limited to current projects.  Just identify two possible markets and submit.

So now on March 16th, I've just finished my second week of submissions.  I had been sitting on some poems that I was rather proud of but had no idea what to do with. So I used this opportunity to research some online e-zines, literary blogs and lit journals that would make a suitable home for my work. Once I had a list of a handful of markets I simply referenced it weekly pulled from my catalogue of work and hit submit.

Here are some of the other items I intend on submitting in order to meet my goals.
--Flash Fiction.
--Poetry.
--RWA Newsletter Articles
--Queries for Novels
--RWA Contests

It's an exciting feeling, knowing your work is out there, on the verge of being seen by fresh eyes.  And I would encourage other writer's out there to give it a try. Not only does the submission goal require you to put yourself out there, but it also means building a steady body of work that you can draw from when submitting. If you want to become a daily writer a good motivation is hard deadline for submissions. You don't have to wait for a whole novel to be completed and polished. Do something fun on the side.