george nik. wrote:Why only on a Saturday? My deadline is that all stories must be out to markets every day (except in special cases that for one reason or another I have modifications to make, so they can have a few days off). When I get a rejection I usually submit immediately and then report the rejection to Duotrope and then report the submission to Duotrope. It seems to be the most efficient way to go about it.
In any process, I believe you need a regular means of measuring how close you are to your plan. That means you need a periodic meaurement or assessment.
I do TRY to get the story right back out there immediately; but maybe the rejection comes in during the work day, and I can't run a search right then. Or maybe a hundred other things might happen that could delay me from running a search right away. So when I set up my goals for the year, I set Saturday as my "meter day", the day when I check how I'm doing. If all stories are out to markets on Saturday, then I'm on track; but if any are sitting around idle, I'm falling behind on that goal.
I instituted this policy late in 2010 after reading Dean's post on setting attainable, measurable goals. It was actually part of my goals for 2011; but the last day of 2010 was a Saturday, and it happened that one of my stories got a rejection from Asimov's that very day. So I said, "Oh, heck, it's New Year's Eve, I might as well start the goal now. Where can I send this story today? Oh, hey, Writers of the Future... Hey,
their deadline is today, and
my deadline is today. I hate to waste a good coincidence. I'll send it there, find out what this contest is all about."
And Jerrry Pournelle loooooved that story! So I'm now irrationally attached to my Saturday deadlines. They served me well in that case, at least!
http://Shoemaker.SpaceOther worlds from award-winning author Martin L. Shoemaker
WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! WRITE!
SUBMIT! SUBMIT! SUBMIT! SUBMIT! SUBMIT!
REPEAT! REPEAT! REPEAT! REPEAT! REPEAT!
Patience. Patience. Patience. Patience. Patience.
NNiNN