The Journey of a Story: A Metaphor for the Last Two Years?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope this post finds you well. The fact that we’ve already come upon 2022 when so many of us are still trying to process 2020 feels surreal. It’s almost unfathomable to me that so much can change in just two years.

I’m not generally one for New Year’s resolutions, as I prefer to “reset” at various times throughout the year. Even so, I like to use this time of year to reflect on life, as it’s natural to think of a new year as a new beginning. Additionally, because January is my business’s anniversary (this January marks my third anniversary!), it’s also a useful time to reflect on my professional growth as well.

Reflection

When you’re in business, professional growth/development is crucial. You need to keep up with trends in technology and, for writers and editors, trends in publishing and other writing-related topics. Yes, writing changes. Style guides are updated, dictionaries are updated, and language itself changes. Sometimes such changes are subtle, and sometimes they’re not so subtle, not so unlike one’s own personal development.

2021 was my third full year in business, and it was actually quite a whirlwind of a year. I kept busy editing and proofreading novels, nonfiction manuscripts, theses/dissertations, technical reports, essays, and lots of other projects. I love the variety of projects I get to work on, but there’s always some I enjoy more than others. Now that my business is fairly well established, my goal going forward is to focus more on how I want to develop it: What kinds of things do I most like to edit? What sorts of projects do I prefer? I’m not making any sweeping changes at this point, but as 2022 progresses, my goal is to refine my skills through professional development opportunities (classes, workshops, etc.) and see where that leads me. I also hope to revamp my website, but that is down the road a bit.

As I continue to develop and grow my business (and myself), one of the aspects that is increasingly important to me is making sure I also allow time for my own writing. 2021 was a pivotal year for me in regards to my creative writing, and I hope to continue the momentum throughout 2022.

One Story’s Journey

There’s one story I wrote whose “journey” from first draft to acceptance [for publication] feels especially representative of the last couple of years for me. There’s nothing particularly special about this story, but the timeline of its journey speaks to me.

The story began as stories do, as a draft, which I took to my writing group for feedback. I wrote the story in December 2019 and revised it based on feedback; but like most stories, it would continue to need finessing and revision over time.

2020, of course, began in upheaval, both personally and globally. My mom had been diagnosed with ALS at the end of 2019, and I was frantically preparing to relocate from one state to another so as to help with her caregiving; I got officially moved only a week before the pandemic was declared. Needless to say, the story was neglected for quite a few months. Like many, I spent much of 2020 in survival mode; besides the stress of the pandemic, I was also helping to care for my mother, who then died in December 2020. But by the last few months of 2020, I had made a renewed commitment to my creative writing and was submitting work to journals in earnest.

I submitted the aforementioned story to a journal for the first time on December 29, 2020, just over a year after I had initially written it.

It was rejected from that journal, as is a natural part of the submission process, and throughout 2021, I revised and submitted it to other journals. In total, it was rejected by six journals. Yesterday (December 31, 2021), though, I finally received an acceptance of the story. It seemed a perfect way to end the year, as well as a perfect way to begin the new one. It was a little while later when I realized how this story had travelled over time, from 2019 to 2020 to 2021 and finally to its impending publication in 2022.

Just like this story’s journey, which took about two years (give or take a few weeks), I feel like my own life has followed a similar trajectory over the last couple of years. I spent most of 2021 working at various writing-related tasks: writing, revising, and submitting my own creative writing; reading and studying the craft of writing; and editing other people’s work. At the same time, my story spent most of 2021 being pushed and pulled along as it was sent to and rejected by different places. Both my story and I kept our eyes on the prize (so to speak!), propelling forward in our journeys, but neither of us had much leisure time or time just for ourselves.

Searching for Myself

The part of me that exists outside of my writing-related work somehow got misplaced in 2021 as I struggled with grief and anxiety. I didn’t travel, and the hobbies I participated in (e.g., art, running, reading) were often done haphazardly or they felt forced. My primary focus throughout the year was on work and my own writing activities, both of which I enjoy completely; but those activities alone (without something to balance them out) cannot sustain me. There were dozens of stories that I worked on and/or submitted to journals, and quite a few that were published. But working while entrenched deeply in grief, I neglected to find a positive work-life balance. Although it is certainly my plan to continue revising, submitting, and publishing and to continue developing my business, I’m also looking to create a better balance going forward in 2022, so as to more positively benefit my mental health.

Just like my story finally found a place after two years, I’m hoping I will find myself again this year as well.

Investing in Myself

Writing, submitting, and publishing is a process, but so is life. So is growth. In 2021, I persevered, despite experiencing intense grief, anxiety, and depression.

That I received an acceptance on New Year’s Eve for a story I had written almost exactly two years before seems fortuitous and hopeful–“a good omen,” as my mom would say. Perhaps this New Year’s Eve acceptance was a sign that I will be able to move on from these last couple of years and leave some of my pain behind. Engage more deeply in leisure activities. Travel again. Discover new pleasures and meet new people. Make time for myself.

I was exhausted for almost all of 2021. And I was numb. And when I wasn’t numb, I was overwhelmed with emotion.

It is for this reason that I’m choosing to invest in myself–both in professional and personal growth. I’m already signed up for one professional development course, and I recently signed up with a personal fitness trainer as well. I didn’t do these things because it’s a new year; I did these things because I’ve been overdue for a reset, and upon reflecting on what went well and what went poorly in 2021, the timing just seemed right.

Cheers, and once again: Happy New Year! (I think it will, indeed, be a happy(er) year.)