I've just set up a new Discussion at The Submission Mission:

http://www.shewrites.com/group/thesubmissionmission/forum/topics/set-a-goal-report-progress.

It's a place to state your specific, reasonable goal and to report your progress on that goal.

Talking about submitting our work is really helpful, but doing the submissions is the important thing, just as doing the writing is important. Out of the last live chat came the demand for a way to share our specific goals with each other and to hold each other accountable for those submission goals. This new Discussion is a way we can do that for ourselves and each other.

I'm excited about this new feature because I'm deadline oriented and because, as I looked back on my own submission record, I realized that my sense of my submission habits doesn't match my submission record. I'm falling short. In early May, I submitted work to a dozen different places, only one of which led to publication. In fact, the one acceptance came from dirtcakes, after the editor participated in a live chat with The Submission Mission; another group member will have poems in the same issue. I'm still waiting to hear from four places, but that's yet another reason for getting work out there on a regular basis instead of waiting for responses. I submitted nothing in June, even though I feel as if I submitted during the summer. In July, I applied to three residencies and submitted a co-written story to a magazine, but who knew I didn't submit my own work to editors that month? I didn't know until I looked at what I'd written down.

Perhaps, I'm not matching my submission habits with my writing habits. Maybe I'm not recognizing the waves that occur naturally in my process. Or maybe not pushing myself to submit more consistently month to month. It's not as if I haven't been writing, and I've had a couple of editors solicit my work in the last month, so I am working hard, but I'm not keeping track. And no one knows when the organizer of The Submission Mission isn't putting her poems where her mouth is.

I'm hoping that, by writing down my goals for the group, I can get a better sense of my submission habits and hold myself accountable for doing the submissions work. And if I state a goal and then don't report anything, I hope another group member will nudge with a reminder or a suggestion. I'm really hoping that you'll do the same!

To learn more or to join The Submission Mission, click on the group page HERE.