Resume Building

Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay

​This week has been all about resume building for me. Working on short stories, submitting poems, and perfecting my tiling skills while cursing at inanimate objects. 

Yes, I know the tile saw cannot talk back and it isn’t its fault. I also know the mortar can’t help that it got stuck to the bottom of my shoe and tracked a white dotted line through the house. But muttering at them under my breath always helps to relieve the pressure building up inside of me.

On the writing front, working on my resume currently entails submitting poems (since those have recently proven successful) and polishing short stories to submit to magazines.

Writing, like all occupations, prefers a resume. Also like all occupations there are employers, or in this case publishers, who are willing to take on writers with no experience. So, I am not without hope.

But having a list of previously published works definitely improves the chances of being picked up by a publisher or agent.

I struggle with anything under 40,000 words sounding like a complete work and not a lead in to a bigger story. Short stories are an artform and I have the utmost respect for people who write them. I think I have mine figured out by focusing on a central issue they have to overcome and carefully deleting all hints of the story beyond that issue. Hopefully I’m right and, fingers crossed, at least one of my stories appeals to the magazines where I’m sending them.

I’ll find out sometime in the next four to twelve weeks. (Current response rate for most magazines.)
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Wish me luck.