End of year malaise

[Myword]

So I had avery busy year writing 20 page articles, hard work, no payoff yet. Only one short story
published.
An uphill struggle and the view when I am finished palls quickly. Then I may get published,
a relief, and start over again, wondering if it will be read or understood entirely.
My papers sometimes are just out of range of a journal's scope. I have queried them beforehand
and am selective who I send it to. Seems like they look for ereasons to reject, like looking
for a job.   they may not have  qualified knowledgeable reviewers. Meanwhile my fingers are sore and stiff from the computer!

  Do you feel this way?

[Parasaurolophus]

I'm looking at my publication plans for the first half of 2023 and gulping hard:

• Turning around a very-involved R&R
• Submitting 2 invited contributions (each currently partly written, but not much)
• 5 new special issue submissions
• Submitting one extant rejected paper for another special issue
• Re-jigging an extant paper into a symposium talk on a senior scholar's work

Even if I cut the new special issue submissions to just one (as a test case for a new book), that's a lot to do in the next few months, especially since I have one wholly new prep. But even if I manage it all, I won't get much out of it. Nobody here cares about my publication record, and I have enough already that the highs from acceptances are short-lived.

[Sun_Worshiper]

Just keep plugging away, MyWord. If you keep writing, submitting, and incorporating feedback, then you will have some success. Frustration comes with the territory, unfortunately, but once you hit a stride things should get easier.

If the malaise is really eating at you, then my advice is to take a week or two off. Come back refreshed and excited to get back to work!

[Wahoo Redux]

What SunWorshiper said.

I am writing yet another short pulp novel.  I'm almost finished.  I also had a single short story published this year, several newspaper articles, and a two academic articles as well as a reprint of a poem.

The monograph has been languishing, as has another newspaper assignment, as have a very late R&R and a revision of a rejected paper.

My own personal malaise is that any writing I do will now simply be for my own benefit.  I have more-or-less given up on an academic career and have given up on the idea of "contributing to my discipline" or however you would say it.  I'm trying to retool myself as an "independent scholar," but that lacks some of the punch of being a writer associated with other scholars and creative people in a university setting.

Meh.

Keep the faith all.

[Ruralguy]

Yeah, honestly, I just sort of keep going. Re-work rejected stuff, think of the next new thing, etc. Since I am well past full, I give some priority to "fun" projects rather than "bread and butter" publishing, though depending on where you are at physically (that is, which school and department) or in your career, this may not be such a great way of thinking. But I recently had one of my first stone cold rejections in 25 years. Ouch.  Think of actor auditions. You might fit the specifics brilliantly. You nail the audition. The casting person then just says "next!" That sort of thing just happens. Speaking both with peers in the same jam and also senior people who have broken through can really help.

[paultuttle]

If your fingers are truly getting tired of typing, then you may want to consider speech-to-text programs (Dragonspeak, etc.).

But if the real issue is a slog through a morass of complicated tasks, then what helps me the most is to try to cut the tasks down to manageable chunks--sub-tasks that can be handled in 30-45-60 minutes. And if the real issue is motivation to do the sub-task, then I set the timer on my iPhone and see what I can get down on paper (or on the screen) in a concentrated high-speed sprint of 10-15 minutes. 

Just sharing what works for me when I'm spinning from task to task, obligation to obligation, demand to demand, wondering which thing I can/should/might do first, or when I'm losing my shoes trying to walk through the clinging quicksand of "must-dos" versus "gotta-dos" versus "emergencies" versus "on the horizon" things.

[Myword]

My fingers are  sore from this Dell laptop I use that my hands are not agile. I drop things easily and make typing errors. This computer, only 2 years old, forces users to press keys hard. Very hard, otherwise the letter goes somewhere else. If I had known this, I never would have got it. Light touch is all I want.

I write for myself and anyone who might read it. Since I retired, I have much time to read and write all day but after 2-3 hours I need a break from abstruse philosophy. Some people write to get tenure, I write to be read, if anyone cares... maybe this year will be fruitful.
I tend to cover too much in my articles rather than a narrow focus with logical technicalities.