I'm Thinkin' Positively

      I got an email today that my story "There's No Ceiling on Dreams" has made an initial cut for the Chicken Soup for the Soul book The Power of Positive. It's a story close to my heart, because it was about my students last year. Together, we hung our dreams from the ceiling in my classroom, and my dream came true.

 (I know, Linda. You have told all of us that they sometimes pull a story at the last minute, so I'm not counting my chickens for this Chicken Soup book before they hatch. But I am remaining hopeful.)

     I submitted two stories for this collection; the other one focused on a crime committed against a friend's son. He is now a paraplegic, but maintains a positive attitude despite having to adjust to life in a wheelchair. I worked on the story for quite a while, had my critique group help me with it, it simmered, was allowed to cool, and I heated it back up again several times before sending it off. I am assuming it did not make the cut.


    The other story was a harder write. I wanted to increase my chances at getting in this anthology by sending off more than one submission, so I started it, let it sit for a few weeks, added another paragraph or two, and let it sit some more. The other piece wrote itself. This one...not so much.

     What I find interesting although no one else will is that even though it's not an old piece that was worked on in my critique group last summer, and even though it was not critiqued by the WWWP's (Wild Women Wielding Pens), I channeled them. I would look at the story and--after hearing the same comments over and over ("Too darned many ellipsis, Sioux!"  "Tighten this up."  "Your ending needs more punch.")--I made some changes. I imagined Alice's red pen flying across the pages. In my mind I watched as Beth and Lynn and Tammy and Linda read my story-- and they gave me invaluable help even though it happened in my living room around midnight, and I was the only one in the room.

     Last week I thought, 'I'm going to hear about a submission sometime this week.' Didn't happen. I thought the same thing this week. I guess if I thought that long enough, eventually I would hear something. 

    How do you keep positive about your writing?