Has My Writing Plateaued?
I want my writing to keep scaling the mountain. But what if I wasn't climbing a mountain all along? What if I was climbing a plateau?
Perspiration is essential for the mammal. Persistence is essential for the creator.
I happen to be both… so I’m constantly sweating and trying over here.
I took a turn from screenwriting to writing prose a little over two and a half years ago. A turn back to it, I should say. And I still do some screenwriting but I’ve been focusing heavily on writing short stories and manuscripts. In that time of over two and a half years I have been submitting to a lot of contests and publications. A lot.
Success won’t come easy or early so I am submitting as often as I can. There’s no guarantee I’d get published just because I submitted X amount of times or because I had been submitting for X amount of months. But the only way to get published is to keep submitting and not let constant rejection get me down.
I had to keep telling myself that quite a lot in the beginning… because I got turned down a lot. A lot.
I keep track of my submissions just to keep everything organized. Because of that I’m able to see just how many times I’ve submitted. In the beginning, it was 67 times, and never a ‘Yes.’ A lot of ‘Unfortunately No’s’ and the like. In that span of 0/67 I did move on to a second round 3 different times. So that was something. But it wasn’t the goal. No one dreams of making it to the second round of three different contests/consideration periods for publications. 0/67 is a tough one to not let bruise your ego. But it’s important to not let it bruise you… because it’s absolutely a possibility… it should probably be expected! And then finally, number 68, I got accepted! To a publication called Sci-Fi Shorts. 1/68 would be the worst field goal percentage for a basketball player and an atrocious completion rate for a quarterback. But for a writer, for me, it didn’t matter. Because it had the 1.
I kept submitting at the same rate and soon, I was 2/80. Another story accepted to Sci-Fi Shorts. And then I was 3/86. A story accepted to Clever Fox Lit! Had I broken the seal? Was I now getting accepted more often after having achieved the elusive “first?”
I kept submitting. Over the next 29 attempts, 2 more stories accepted, to Sci-Fi Shorts. Also, a big contest called the Launch Pad Prose Competition, I moved on to the Top 50. Effectively the Fourth round of a Six Round competition. I was sure I had reached the next level in my writing career. I was 5/115… Tom Brady numbers, right? But in all seriousness, 5 times I was published, and in my last 50 attempts or so. I assumed my writing was improving and I was seeing the fruits of that labor. And my Top 50 placement in that competition scored me a meeting with a production company who wanted to read more of my work!
It was exciting. I expected things to keep rolling at that pace.
But they didn’t.
I kept submitting… and I kept getting rejected. That meeting I had, it felt like it went well. I sent them a few pieces of my work. I waited. I followed up. Didn’t hear back from them. Sure, they could have a lot going on, and you never know what could happen. Or they could have had other meetings with writers who they were more interested in. So, I kept submitting. And I kept getting rejected. 62 more times. One honorable mention. But nothing more. Similar to my 0/67 start. Had I plateaued? Or worse… found the steep hill down on the other side of the mountain?
But I kept telling myself to keep at it. Persistence was key. And perspiration. Believe me, you go 0/62 and you’re perspiring. But I knew there was no rhyme or reason to the numbers. It was truly just sending out the best work I could… and hoping for the best. It was still difficult though, thinking I had leveled up, but then wondering if it all was just a temporary power boost. There we go, my sports metaphors had turned into video game metaphors. In any event, what was the strategy?
Keep playing the game.
And I’m glad I did.
I just received word, another story of mine was accepted! To Mollusk Lit.
6/178.
And my fears of it all just being a temporary power boost melted away… for now, anyway. But seriously, it was a reminder to me, I just have to keep submitting. It’s the only way to get published. And there will be a lot of rejection along the way but that doesn’t matter. That fraction 6/178, the denominator doesn’t matter. Only the numerator… and that it is a positive integer larger than 0. And now my metaphor got quite mathy.
I wanted to share my story… the one getting published… but I also wanted to share my story… the one about my journey here. I’m not the only one who's gone through this. That’s far from the truth. But if you want it, if you want to be published, you’ll have to go through it too. When my story is available on Mollusk Lit I’ll share it, in the meantime, I am just basking in the rays of another acceptance email.
One last tidbit of information that might also help. My first 5 stories to get published, the places that published them were the only places I sent them to. So, those particular stories never got rejected. Only accepted. This most recent one, I had sent it to 3 previous publications that had all turned it down. It was the 4th that accepted it. So, don’t get down on a story getting turned down by a publication… or multiple publications… it could still find a home elsewhere.
Like I said, persistence is key. As is a good sweatband. Because perspiration is inevitable.
About the Creator
Stephen Kramer Avitabile
I'm a creative writer in the way that I write. I hold the pen in this unique and creative way you've never seen. The content which I write... well, it's still to be determined if that's any good.
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Comments (30)
Amazing job congratulations to your top story
Absolutely love the opening two lines haha. "1/68 would be the worst field goal percentage for a basketball player and an atrocious completion rate for a quarterback. But for a writer, for me, it didn’t matter. Because it had the 1." is a healthy way of looking at it Stephen, because unlike the two sports, writing isn't objective. Readers might love something you think isn't your strongest piece, or vice versa, and that's just part of it. "It was truly just sending out the best work I could" is so key too, as that's the only part you can control as the writer- the rest is really out of your hands. Keep going man!
I done gave this article a shout out in this here piece of mine: https://vocal.media/writers/die-pre-release-demons
Good on you for persevering Stephen.
Congrats on the top story! Also, congratulations on all your works that have been published thus far. I’m not sure where you’re doing these submissions but I wouldn’t mind knowing. And I hope you get back to your screenwriting, I’m diving into it this year.
Congrats on the top story. You've given me some things to think about, so thanks for that. Up to now, I've not really dabbled in fiction, nor thought about places where I might have work published. But this piece gives me a couple of ideas to explore when I have the leisure.
Congrats on Top Story!🥳🥳🥳
love the transparency and outlook!! You are doing so well! Keep climbing :D
Nicely done. Congratulations for your top story
Well done! I don't think I've ever submitted anything to be published, so just that step, well done.
Stephen, congratulations. I love the fact that you haven't given up and it gives hope to the rest of us who dream of being published other than here. Rejection is hard and maintaining that mindset that you can write, that your stuff is good in the face of it is really hard. Keep at it! I can recommend a good antiperspirant if you're interested? Joking - this is not a spam comment.
1. Congrats on being published! 2. I absolutely love how conversational your writing is and I really enjoyed the metaphors (whether they were about sports, video games, or math). I've felt like I've plateaued for awhile too but this just gave me the encouragement to keep writing in spite of that. Thanks for sharing your story with us!
I'm feeling that too, in the hamster wheel. Maybe setting a bigger goal would help?
Back to say congratulations on your Top Story! 🎉💖🎊🎉💖🎊
Great
Fear of rejection holds me back. You are so dedicated! For now, writing on Vocal is enough while I explore what I like to write, what my strengths are... maybe later I will try to get published.
When I first entered the writing world, I knew it would be rough, but I never imagined it to be as brutal as it's been. But I must be a masochist, because I can't stop, no matter how many rejections I've received. The torture of nonacceptance seems to only make me more determined. Reading your story has given me some relief, because you've proved to be resilient. You didn't quit, and I commend you for this bravery. I know pushing through the doubt isn't easy.
Congratulations, Stephen!
Great story of perseverance.
'Writing is 10% inspiration; 90% perspiration.' - George Bernard Shaw
Back to say a huge congratulations
Gosh you are the epitome of perseverance and I feel so honoured to be friends with you! I agree with what you said, that it's the numerator that matters. Congratulations to all your stories that have been accepted! Here's to more of them to get published! I wish you all the best!
I love this type of info, every bit of it. Unfortunately, rejection comes with the job, we all know this by now, I hope. But the fact that you did get published is more than some/most of us can say. I've been published once. Reading this reminds me of "WHAT THE HELL AM I WAITING FOR?" You just inspired/motivated me to take a deeper dive into submitting my work! Thank you for that... Now if we can back it up a bit, I'm very interested in screen plays and have a story I'm almost ready to rewrite but this time into a screenplay. What program do you use to create them. I had a copy of Final Draft on an older computer that took a dump when I moved recently. I want to get another copy but if you know of any better programs out there, please let me know! Thanks again, Stephen!
Congratulations, Stephen! And never fear, your publication average is still better than my little league batting average (with that infamous numerator of zero). And I can identify with the idea of resubmitting stories you believe in. The story I had submitted to the Campfire Story challenge here on Vocal didn't receive so much as the recognition afforded Top Story & virtually no reads. But submitting that same story to the Vocal Awards not only got short-listed but came in second in the horror classification. Woo-hoo! Right after the short-listing, I had my first ever placement in a challenge after something like three years here (runner up).
Not sure that the newcomer nowadays have to make that experience, too - but they should, because it is the first key factor to become better. I never counted my rejection letters, but I collected them. During the early years I even put them on the wall around my desk. It was hard, but it made me become better. And knowing that even Harry Potter got rejected many times, says everything. The only way to learn writing is writing (and reading). As much as I have learned, rejections have nothing to do with the quality of the story. There are many other reasons that are more important. A few years ago I had to deal with a publishing house about a story they wanted to publish (they heard I was working on that again) that had rejected years ago for some strange reasons (strange in my opinion). Keep writing, and everything else will happen sooner or later!