Hello from the Writing Attic!

A very snowy writing attic too! I hope you all are staying warm and cozy and dumping any bosses off your backs that are asking you to drive in this madness.

In New Years past, I have usually constructed a list of new goals and writerly things I want to accomplish and I make up a little round robin of all the things I did the year before to see how my writing career is shaping up. But I have a new resolution for this New Year: no more numbers.

No more numbers means I’m giving up the counting game in terms of goal-setting, at least for this year. Usually, I say I want to read at least 100 books, submit at least # of pieces, receive at least 100 rejections, etc. If you’re exhausted reading that, honestly so tf am I.

I’ve spent the past several years wrapped up in my own personal numbers and lists game. Partly an obsessive-compulsive streak, majorly a way to deal with anxiety, setting number goals and making and crossing things off lists has kept me straight in my head. It’s also kept me from thinking too hard about anything, good or bad.

There’s no time to get into the weeds of whether or not my work is saying anything important because I need to make that submission goal. No time to re-read a really good book when I need to read 99 others. No time to sit and let my mind wonder when I’ve got 10,000 steps to step and a slew of unplayed podcasts. No time to wonder if I’m spending my time well if I’m spending it scrolling for followers and likes and retweets and comments.

Brene Brown talks about how there are two types of ways people handle critical, anxious times—the over-functioners and the under-functioners. The under-functioners hide under a blanket until the chaos passes. The over-functioners hide under a blanket of activity until the chaos passes. They get moving and stay moving without ever looking at what they’re moving toward. You can guess which one I am.

In 2021, I finally over-functioned myself into a collapse. One day this fall, I looked around and realized I had no idea how I ended up with an inbox full of emails for jobs I didn’t care to do. I had read about 70 books and couldn’t recall a single impactful one. I had bylines, boy did I have bylines, but only a few of them were really meaningful. I was a hamster on a wheel (except replace the wheel with a laptop.)

So for 2022, I’m opting out. No more numbers. No more auto-pilot. All intention, all joy.

Now let’s gossip.

Submission Success Story: "The Gradual Extinction of Softness” by Chantha Nguon with Kim Green for Hippocampus Magazine

Turning today’s Submission Success Story over to our friend, Kim Green, who has been featured in the past two newsletters as our most recent Writers Ask and Win. And what a win this piece is turning out to be! Seriously the stuff dreams are made of. I’m so pleased Kim is willing to share the behind the scenes story with us!

Now take it away, Kim!

The story of this essay is really the story of a book co-writing project. Chantha Nguon and I have been writing her memoir together since 2012. I finished a draft in spring of 2018. We got an agent that fall, and she started submissions in early 2019. As the rejections rolled in (35+), I knew we needed a backup plan and pulled together a couple of excerpts to submit to major pubs, in hopes that might strengthen our proposal. A shorter, more focused excerpt made the rounds. We got an early, strong bite from a NYT editor, but she ultimately passed — the food page editors were unsure about how the co-writing would be perceived journalistically. Since then, we’ve had 20 rejections/no-replies on that first excerpt.

Late in 2020, I started submitting the longer excerpt to literary magazines. This was a Hail Mary pass. Unlike the first excerpt, which was lifted straight from a chapter, this longer one was pulled together from throughout the manuscript and told the wider sweep of Chantha’s life story. Honestly, I thought the shorter excerpt stood a better chance of landing somewhere. And I knew nothing about Lit World and had no clear submission strategy.

Eight months after the first submission, I heard back from two lit mags in the same week. One was a higher-profile pub I knew well, and the other was unknown to me (but excellent and highly recommended by trusted lit-friends). I suddenly had to decide between the (perceived) higher profile magazine that was showing interest but giving no definite answer (more questions about the dual authorship) and the second, unknown-to-me pub that enthusiastically wanted it. I didn’t trust my judgment because I don’t know how the world of lit mags works. And I have come to understand that the game of publishing is a game of attention and perception. So it seems that “high-profile” moves the needle more than scrappy, excellent, and under-the-radar does — which makes me ****ing sad. Anyway, based on some great advice by Lisa B, Chantha and I decided on the definite, enthusiastic yes from Hippocampus Magazine, which turned out to be a fabulous experience. The editing process was excellent and painless, and I just liked these folks.

The story went live on Monday, November 8. It quickly landed on Hacker News, a news aggregator that also hosts Reddit-style discussion threads. A big crazy discussion thread formed there, and the story got a lot of hits and retweets. Traffic surged. On Wednesday, the Hippocampus site went down. For the next 3-4 days, the site loaded intermittently, and the editors spent long nights on the phone, pleading with their web host, to no avail. On Friday, Longreads chose the essay as one of their Weekly Top 5 and sent it out in their newsletter — while the site was still malfunctioning. The editors lost their minds and changed web hosts. Site was back up by Sunday. A few other Best Of lists featured the essay on their sites, including The Browser and BMoreArt. Then Longreads chose our essay as one of the best personal essays of 2021, which was an absolute thrill for Chantha and me. An editor at an indie publishing house reached out after reading the essay. We sent her the proposal and are waiting to hear back. Fingers crossed.

Here’s the stats: 

# Drafts before submission: I don’t know. Probably no more than 3-4 drafts, and I think I pieced it together initially about 3 years ago. It came together fairly quickly. But it took 6y to write the book draft, so I guess you could argue this essay took 6+ years to write.

Response time from Accepting Publication: 169 days

Total rejections received before an acceptance:  I only submitted this to four places. It was rejected by one place, accepted by one, “maybed” by one, and I withdrew it to the last place after acceptance. So this one had an oddly good track record, but that’s only after the other excerpt was rejected by — wait for it — 21 outlets.

Pay:   $40

Must-Read: “Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now” by Jaron Lanier

Part of my no more numbers goal came after reading, and then re-reading, this book. It’s a short, impactful book and makes, by far, the best case as to why we need to ditch social media in its current format.

I’ve read so many books and articles about the evils of the social media algorithm in our lives and democracy, but this book was the only one that pushed me to any action. I’ve since deleted my Twitter, deactivated my Facebook (will delete once I preserve my photos), limited my other social media consumption and honestly feel like an actual real human being again. I can’t recommend this book enough.

(And if your immediate thought was “But how will I promote my writing?” let this New York Times article about how publishers are increasingly skeptical about how social media platforms actually translate to book sales soothe your fears.)

Celebrations Required!

• Congratulations to writer friend, Christy Lynch, whose flash essay, “Natural Unselection” was featured in Creative Nonfiction’s Sunday Short Reads.

• A big high five to Yurina Yoshikawa and her recent op-ed in The Tennessean about the new Omicron wave and the travel restrictions that have kept her from visiting her family since the pandemic’s begin.

• Friend from across the pond in German, Crispen Lish, recently enjoyed two story acceptances! “The Ancient Wisdom” to be published with Literally Stories and “The Shepherd’s Crook” to be published in Eunoia Review, both in early February.

Congratulations to all!