Quick dumb question:
What more can I be doing to improve my writing? Currently I enter short story comps, flash fiction events, and story prompt comps, though my pace has slowed to only two or three a month. I try to write for at least an hour and a half each morning, from 6:30-8am before I have to go get my one remaining homeschool kid up for the day and help with my disabled spouse’s daily care routine. I work a few shifts a week at grocery, and do house cleaning and pet sitting, as well as running a (mostly unsuccessful) craft market stall so life is kinda busy. I try to find times to write throughout the day too, and edit at night.
When I write, as well as short stories, I plug away at longer manuscripts, ranging from early and middle school reader novels and two YA novels. Every time submissions are open in my country I submit my best work, only after multiple edits, but I’ve kinda run out of agents and publishers who accept unagented submissions at this point.
Which leads me back to my question, because rejections mean I’m not meeting standard and not writing what they want to publish. So, how do I improve my writing? How do I do it on a budget? I try to read as much as I can and keep seeing the rejections as good experience, but my infamously low self-esteem is starting to overwhelm me.
Any help would be really appreciated, and I’m sorry for going on such a long, self-pitying rant. Ta xx