A Writer's Notebook, Day Five-Hundred-And-Thirty-Two

It has been a very busy day, as usual when I work with Freesia, and, as usual once more, I have many new ideas.  I always feel gratitude to Freesia, but today there were a number of ways in which Freesia helped me out that I am extremely thankful for.  In the first, we did get some more submissions sent out, which is always a good thing, but that is also the most basic level at which we work.  I am glad we did it, and I think it is very important, but their were a number of things we discussed that really impacted me.  Some of this I don't wish to go into here, but suffice it to say that she offered me some sensible perspective on issues that I have been considering, and I am truly appreciative of her thoughts on these issues.

One thing that Freesia did make me consider was my strategy in terms of publishing.  I've always been fairly reserved about where I send work, wanting to build a reputation of my writing appearing in certain journals, but I came to reconsider this today.  First, I am writing a great deal, and I am certain the quality will continue to improve through continued practice.  If only a small amount of my new work is good, that is still likely to be a great deal.  I wrote around ten poems today and I would expect at least one or two of them to be good, or at least have potential with revision.  It makes no sense not to be sending out as much of my work as I can manage.  It is not a limited resource, and the fact that I keep writing and improving means I am better off if I can get the work I have already out before I outgrow it too far.  I have certainly been in the situation of looking at poems I was proud of in the past and seeing their flaws, choosing not to share them again.  I do not want to discard the work I have been doing, would rather send widely and see my work get published than keep being so selective.  The fact is, any publishing credit is good for me and builds my career, no matter what the journal it is published in.

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