Hi folks! It’s been a whole month since I last posted on here. I apologize for the lack of blog posts, but I’ve been feeling a bit discouraged lately as a writer. I’ve gotten three rejections in a row for my SFF work as a newbie writer. On the bright side, I’ve managed to get published in a indie Black SFF anthology, Scribes of Nyota, earlier this year. This is one of a few silver linings.

Back in October, I happily celebrated Black Speculative Fiction month because I managed to tell my Imposter’s Syndrome to shut up and finish my first fantasy short fiction. As of right now, it hasn’t been accepted anywhere. Yet the fact that I managed to finish it after dealing with Imposter’s Syndrome for a year is a victory.

Besides being published in Scribes of Nyota and finishing my first fantasy short fiction, I also wrote my second speculative fiction poem. I wrote and finished it a couple of weeks after I finished my first piece of short fiction, so that is another victory. As with my story, I’ve been trying to get it published.

All in all, I’ve had more losses than victories. I’ve won two out of five rounds in this game of getting published, if you’re keeping score. Part of me feels discouraged, but a part of me really wants to keep writing and submitting. The writing part is especially important, as I have a nasty habit of procrastinating as a creative writer when something about the process bothers me.

In times like this, I rely on pop culture to inspire me, especially SFF in any shape or form. In this case, I’m reminded of the sci-fi series Doctor Who and a quote from my favorite Doctor, the 12th Doctor:

“Your chances of survival are about one in a thousand. So here’s what you do. You forget the thousand, and you concentrate on the one.”

Although it can feel like my chances of finishing a piece or getting a piece published is one in a thousand, I choose to focus on the one. If I didn’t, the words I haven’t written would be clogging up inside me and the words I haven’t submitted would be buzzing in my head like flies.

I choose to focus on one chance, because continually giving yourself a chance as a writer is better than giving up on yourself.