So, I was going to write something useful and interesting today, but I was struck by a curiosity-driven question.

How did you feel the first time you submitted your work – be it an article, manuscript, query, whatever – to someone for publication?

Over the weekend, I took the plunge and submitted something to a journal. It wasn’t great, and I know it wasn’t my best work, but I needed to break that psychological barrier of ‘not good enough yet’ and just get my work out there. After all, we writers need to amass a nice pile of rejection slips before the acceptances come in, right? And what better time to start than now?

What I didn’t expect was how emotional the experience would be. It’s like… sending a part of your soul away to be judged & cast aside (because that’s what will happen, 99% of the time). Not only does it take courage to do what we do, but what normal person seeks out the rejection of something precious to them, over and over and over again? We writers are definitely not normal.

When I hit “send” on that email & attached piece, it took all of 30 seconds before it hit me. My husband asked me some question about supper and I snapped at him, realizing only after I apologized that I’d just send a part of me out into the world for the very first time, and I broke down. Was it fear? Relief? Writer’s post-partum? I’m still not sure. I was excited and proud of myself that I’d sent something and actually made the deadline, sure… but what was it that caused such an outpouring of emotion?

I’m still trying to figure it out, and I wonder if I’ll feel that way every time. What I’m really curious about is everyone else… what was your experience the first time you submitted something? Did you jump around the house with joy and excitement? Did you tremble with nervous fear? Did you settle down with a cup of tea and relax with a sense of accomplishment?

We writers are strange types, and we all deal with the various stages of the writing process in different ways. So… let’s hear about it!