I started off 2021 really well with respect to my creative writing goals. I took two short story workshops and a novel revision workshop, and I made a ton of progress for the first seven months. Especially when I was living in Northern California, there was something about the place I was staying in or the weather or my weekend hikes that was super motivating. I was up typing away before 7 AM every day.
And then…nothing. I completely stopped. I lost all interest in writing and spent a lot of time reading, crafting, and watching garbage on YouTube. I even went through a month long period where I didn’t read anything. Total brain burnout. It’s hard to write all day for a living and then write again at night. Blogging was the most I could manage.
My company is closed winter break from Christmas Eve through New Year’s, and part of that I spent in the Galápagos Islands where the internet connectivity was so bad it might well have not existed. So in between kayaking and cycling and hiking and snorkeling, I had a good old fashioned pen and paper on my hotel balcony playing around with new ideas for some special calls for submissions I had found on Duotrope. It was revitalizing.
I started January with a bang, reviewing, polishing, revising, and submitting five pieces in the first week, and I got my first acceptance of 2022 on January 7th. It’s a fun, 50-word micro fiction piece I submitted to Blink Ink for their “Bad Habits” issue. Blink Ink is a print only journal, so you’ll have to buy an issue to read it (and you should!), or better yet, get a one-year subscription. My published piece is called Even Though They Lick the Floor.
Jennifer A Swallow 