Yesterday, I had a kid home sick.
Actually, yesterday, the day before, AND today, I had a kid home sick.
The first day, I got writing done. This was pretty amazing because I usually have problems writing when someone is in the house with me. Just the sound of breathing or a page turning in a magazine is enough to snap me out of FLOW and distract me. I can usually manage to do some editing with people around, but not writing. The fact that I actually wrote a first draft with a little cutie around on Tuesday blew me away.
Yesterday, though, it wasn’t happening. (The kid home on Tuesday left me alone. The kid home yesterday and today is the type who wants snuggles and a chat when sick.) But I really, really wanted to get work done. I had a pitch all typed up that just needed a few tweaks, so I made the tweaks and then submitted it to the editor.
When I recorded my submission into my submission log, I noticed something: there were a few pieces I’d submitted a while back that hadn’t gotten accepted. Quite a few. I marked them all on my log, then looked at them one at a time. One needed a little adjustment.
And then I remembered that I had missed a submission date for a contest a few weeks back, but that the piece had been pretty good.
I started pulling up publishers’ submission pages from a file containing bookmarks for such things. I looked back through my records to make sure I didn’t submit anything to a place I’d already sent it to.
I had to write some cover letters, and to set up an account for an online submission service that was a whole heck of a lot less user-friendly than Submittable. But the pieces got sent out.
I hardly did any writing yesterday, but I feel the day was well-spent.
Today, I have gotten less done. My kids got me sick.
You win some, you lose some.
