I think I've been going about this whole trying-to-get-published thing the wrong way. I've been taking my one, monumental novel kind of project (first, the LDS romance, then the kids' chapter book), sending it off, and waiting for it to come back only to have it refused again. Then I'd send it off again or go back to the drawing board and try to send it to an editor for revision ideas. I'm stalled on revising the romance and getting ideas on my synopsis for my novel.
In the meantime, I've been sitting on award-winning poetry, short stories, children's stories, and a braided essay for decades. Years ago, I heard the advice that I ought order a copy of each and every magazine before sending anything off. It sound so expensive and stressful that I haven't done anything with it. It's just all been sitting there, gathering dust.
Well, about a week or two ago, I started formulating a new plan. My romance novel still needs a serious overhaul (getting some emotional distance preparatory to that). I'm soon going to send off the chapter book yet again (it's been to one publisher and three agents, all of whom passed with or without an explanation). But in the meantime, I have also started polishing up my old short stories, one by one, and have started doing research into online resources about each of these magazines. I already have a refusal for the first of them.
I have decided I just need to treat this like a business. I have a chart. I will write the name of the publisher or agent to whom I send one of these items along with the date it was sent and the time it will take for them to get back with me. I will then wait for it to come back and then mark the result. In the meantime, I will be doing that with my ten or so other short stories as well as my kids' stories and poetry. One of these days, if I'm persistent, something will pan out. When it does, I will make a blog to celebrate. In the meantime, I just have to keep at it.
