A few weeks ago, I described a 30 year journey of one story from creation to publication in The 30 Year Story. Not long after that, Sarah M. Chen wrote a related guest post about perseverance and resubmitting one’s work on the Do Some Damage blog. Lest we leave you with a dismal view of the writing life, I hurry to say, it’s not always that hard. Last year, I placed two stories on the second try for each of them. I had written the first one for a contest in January. It failed to win, but, being familiar with the markets, esp. the online markets, I sent it off again in Feb., and it appeared in the April issue of Mysterical-e. You can read it here.

The second one was written for a June contest. When it went nowhere, I saw a notice for a new market, cut the story to fit, and it was published in Oct. in BJ Bourg’s new flash fiction zine, Flash Bang Mysteries. You can read that one here.

No surprise, the takeaways are the same. Write and polish a good story, be aware of a wide range of markets, and keep trying. Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes, it’s easy (well, easier), but it’s all part of the life we have chosen as writers.