Reality grounds me

Amazing the things you find on blogs.  Sometimes things you wish you hadn't seen.  Another writer posted her rejection note from MZB's Sword & Sorcery 22.  Amazingly, (or not so, as the case may be) it was word for word exactly the same as mine.  Hmmm.  So what I thought to be a personal reply was in actuality was form rejection for those who almost made the cut.  Still, I respect this writer, so to be form-rejected in her company is still a good thing, and lessens the sting a bit if she didn't make it in either.  And still, yes a good thing to make it to being held for consideration until the final cut.  Just laughable I guess in my thinking it was a personalized rejection.  But hey, I *did* get a personal further reply when I wrote back.  So it still counts, right?  I wonder how many of us there are out there that didn't make the final cut.  

I've realized I'm not a prolific writer.  And most likely never will be.  Well I guess I should never say never.  Maybe as I learn to write better and have more successes under my belt I'll lose some of my hesitation and indecision that tends to cripple my progress?  

In looking over my submissions spreadsheet, I see that I've only 18 or so finished stories in the three years that I've been subbing.  Yikes, that's 6 per year -- or 1 every 2 months.  Oh, come to think of it, I might have a couple more that are finished but still need major revisions.  Maybe I shouldn't count those though.  I probably have about 5 or 6 WIP's that are in various stages of progress, some complete that need revising and some only a page or two done.  I guess 6 finished stories a year isn't so bad.  I'd like to have 12 per year though.  One a month doesn't seem too unattainable.

I have 4 (or is it 5?) stories done at the moment, ready to be sent out.  I'm just awaiting the first of May on a couple for open reading periods and then I just learned one anthology market has postponed their date from May to June.  So maybe I've time to sub that new story that wouldn't get off the ground, along with the one I have done already.