Master the Art of Submitting: The Secret to Thriving as a Writer Without Burning Out
Accept that submission time is still writing time. It’s part of the job. Just as you wouldn’t consider yourself a chef if you only cooked but never plated the food or served it, you’re not fully engaged in the writing life if your words stay locked in your drawer. Reframe submission time as the final step in your creative process rather than an annoying administrative task that steals from your “real” writing time.
The most valuable time-saver? Depersonalize rejection. When you stop spending hours licking your wounds after each “not for us” you reclaim that emotional energy for what matters — writing more and submitting again. This can be particularly taxing with CNF because a rejection can feel like a rejection of your lived experience or the reality of life you’re sharing. But it truly isn’t. Remember: this is a numbers game played over years, not weeks. The time you invest now in an efficient submission system will pay dividends in publications later.
