It's amazing what one can do, if one has just a little bit of extra time. When I was working a temp job, I never seemed to have any time to get my stories submitted anywhere. In looking back over my records, I sent out only 2 or 3 submissions in that 5-month period, and those were in the first couple of weeks. After that, any spare minute I had at home was spent writing, which is still a form of entertainment for me.
So, let's compare that to the 6 weeks that I've been 'retired' (again) since the end of that assignment. In the first week, I submitted 2 fantasies to contests. By the end of that month, I had rewritten one of my sf stories into a radio play and submitted it to a contest in England. And in the past week, I have sent a sf piece of flash and a fantasy short to two more contests. And this doesn't count all the work I've done getting another fantasy ready to be e-published.
Sounds like I've been busy, doesn't it? And I have been. But while I've sent out 5 pieces and almost another, I haven't been working on anything new.
This isn't really the kind of business where you can work in cycles; write half a dozen stories and then do nothing but send them out to editors. You can't sell what you haven't written, nor can you sell what you haven't submitted. You need to do both. I need to do both. So I'd better get started on a new story.
PS Yesterday, I had a fantasy short come home after sitting in a slush pile for 7 months. Now I'll have to spend a quarter hour or so looking for the next place to send it. Like I said, I can't sell it if I don't send it out.
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