I came a great motivation trick called the race across it on writer Brad Torgersen’s blog. The race was developed by the prolific, professional author Dean Wesley Smith. He talks about the race in one of his motivation blog posts.

            The race is a simple tally of your current submissions. Here’s how it works:

  • Give yourself one point for every short story that’s currently subbed  
  • Give yourself three points for every chapter and outline currently subbed. 
  • Give yourself eight points for every full manuscript that’s currently subbed
  • Simultaneous subs (to more than one venue) should only be counted once.  
  • Total up the points, and that’s your race score.

            If a piece is rejected or it sells and you get paid, you lose the points.  (The point of payment loses you the points, because a sale might fall through). If you sub a rejected story to another venue, you get your points back.

            This is a race against yourself, a fun trick to keep your subs high. It didn’t seem fair that I got nothing for my poetry subs, so I gave myself a half a point for every poetry submission (half a point for each submission query, not for each poem)

            Here’s my challenge: calculate your current race score then add ten more points. This is your new target. Start subbing, and when you hit your target don’t let it your score drop below that.

            It sounds impossible, doesn’t it?

            After reading about the race I took my score from 35 to 48 points (41 points for short stories, 7 for poems), and now I’m supposed to add another ten points?  

            I’m going to try.

Here are some pointers to get you started:

  • Look through your trunked stories (you know, the works that have slipped off your subbing radar for whatever reason). Sub those stories.  
  • Nothing in the trunk, are you sure? Remember writers are often the worst judge of their own work (and that’s a whole new post). Well, then it’s time to start writing.
  • Make a list of all the places you would like to get published. I’ve got a long list of about 40 publications. I work my way through that list then start again. This keeps my sub circulating and ensures that I don’t forget about a venue.
  • Think outside your safety zone, think outside your genre. I’m a spec writer, to meet the challenge I’m going to think about mystery, crime and literary venues. Search for publications on Duotrope’s Digest http://duotrope.com/index.aspx and Ralan’s Webstravaganza http://www.ralan.com/index.php (Ralan for speculative venues).
  • If a submission gets a rejection, send it straight back out again to another publication. (good advice but I don’t follow this).
  • Laugh at rejection. All writers get rejections. Read the blogs of your favourite authors and be amazed and inspired by their persistence.  

 

            This is what Dean Wesley Smith says about the race:

            “It is also always stunning how the writers with the most points make the most sales. Always happens for some reason.”

            Let me know how you get on, and good luck.   

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Deborah Walker lives in London with her partner, Chris, and her two lovely, yet distracting, young children. Read her science fiction flash stories at Nature’s Futures: The Frozen Hive of her Mind and Aunty Merkel .