Weeks 36 & 37 — Year of Short Stories 2026

2026 is another year of short stories. In this weekly series, I track my short story writing, from idea and draft to submission. These are the weeks of Sept 7 – Sept 20. Stats Stories Finished: 3 Submissions Currently Out: 8 Submissions Total: 35 Rejections: 29 Acceptances: 0 Submissions and Responses I had three form rejections and no new submissions over the past two weeks. Goals My goals from last time: Keep up with critiques Think about process My horror story, The Magpie, is currently out, and the critiques are trickling in. I’ve glanced at a few, but I’ll wait for Wednesday (the end of the Critters week) to start compiling all of it together for the next round of revisions. After numerous false starts, I’ve been writing fairly consistently over the past week. After being behind on my self-imposed quotas for a couple months, I’m now clawing my way back. Last time, I said I was thinking about my process, and that’s beginning to bear fruit. Idea Work In an effort to get more…