Some days it seems like whenever I think I have things in line the way I like them, the dominoes fall down and I need to start over. 

I’ve mentioned 750words before in this blog. I’ve enjoyed the time there, but it looks like it might be time to move on to another site. The site had been free, but starting 1 March it will require a paid subscription. It isn’t much – only $5 a month or $50 a year. But it’s difficult to justify that when I could find the same thing free elsewhere. 

So I’m looking at other sites between now and the March deadline. I missed that with Duotrope, who also required paid subscriptions this year for the majority of its information. [The same subscription rate, even.] And while I loved browsing Duotrope for new markets, I don’t use it enough at this time to go with a paid subscription. The new FAQ at 750 words even said he doesn’t take it personally if the requirement doesn’t fit the writer’s needs – and mentioned a few possible suggestions for replacements. 

All of that ought to light a fire under me to get things edited (which is always my sticking point) and be ready to get them out there so I can be part of Duotrope and feel legitimate because I would be sending things out. 

Which reminds me of an essay I read recently in Write Good or Die – where the author [Kristine Kathryn Rusch] talked about discipline in a way that meant more than simply punching a clock to meet a deadline and get a paycheck. She made a lot of points about why people make it in what they’re doing, especially writing. It’s because we love to do it, and we love to get it right enough to make things happen. The things that need to happen are the ideas, writing, editing, promotion, and the things that we allow to happen that distract us from these goals. 

That essay still has me thoughtful, and it is likely I will read it a few more times until my brain gets the message that I think is in there. I know most of it. I sit myself down in the chair to write daily. Recently I’ve discovered that editing doesn’t come so easily and I need to change how I go about it and how I think about it. After so many years of writing fiction, I finally figured out how to do an outline that makes sense for me, so it can’t be a lost cause to put some more research and purpose into how I go about editing. 

I needed something else to squeeze into the quiet moments when my kids were sleeping, besides the yoga and Pilates books, the fiction I haven’t caught up with, and the never-ending outpouring of words for my own rough drafts. It’s no wonder most of my friends love to read – they’re the only ones who could understand how I get so lost in the worlds I create.