Since I started writing and submitting short stories, my focus has been heavily on the SFWA qualifying markets. To make sure I didn't mess up and send two stories to one magazine or the same story to two different magazines at any given time, I set up a document that kept track of 1) What were the qualifying magazines, 2) Which of my stories, if any, fit in each one and 3) Which stories were out with which magazine now.
As I wrote more stories, it became clear that the list was getting long and hard to manage, so I started creating separate documents, naming them "round 1", "round 2", ect, keeping track of four stories in each.
Today, I sent off the last story from "round 1." These stories are the ones I first started to submit with almost two years ago (and most of them were at least a couple years old at that point). Of the four stories, one showed success, winning an Honorable Mention in Writers of the Future, and for my first try, that counts for something, I think.
I've noticed a lot of growth in my work over the past couple years, looking at the differences between these first pieces and my current ones. I'm looking forward to more.
