how to get published

I don't know about everyone else but it took me years to finally get published.

Years.

It probably didn't help that I actually gave it up for about eight years to try my hand at other things. Oh, yeah, occasionally I would jot something down and stuff that idea in a file folder I had for these 'brain droppings' as the late great George Carlin would call them but essentially I gave it up after I got my BFA in creative writing. I could make more money in construction.

I still could.

But now it is different. I have gone back and read the stories that I submitted ten years ago and I realize why they were rejected.

They were bad. Not horrible bad. They were some good ideas but they were not worth publishing, that is for sure. Now I still have some good ideas, and I have matured as a writer. My dialog has improved from being an afterthought to really running the story and developing the characters beyond the page.

But I still have to say that the reason for my recent success, and I realize that having five stories picked up in one year is hardly a roaring success, is my persistence. I really looked into the magazines that I submitted to. I read what they were publishing, and sometimes even changed, subtle things to appease editors, although I would never change a story completely. Ultimately, the story is still mine.