So, if you’ve been following my end-of-the-year writing wrap-up posts, I think we can all agree that I ended on a little bit of a downer at the end of 2025. Between the looming creative apocalypse that is genAI and my own personal odyssey of submission, I will readily admit that I came into 2026 floundering and a little hopeless about the prospects of my writing career.
So, I set my focus for 2026 to make myself slow down, search for balance, and re-center on my joy of the craft. My Fantasy Horror manuscript went on sub in February, and then I took to writing craft books. I was lucky enough to stumble upon Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing, and it was honestly the perfect book that I needed to shove me out of my mental spiral.
Somewhere along the way, I’d gotten caught up in the idea of “author career success” defining the worth of my words. I’m sure if you’re reading this, that probably makes sense to you as well. But when my mind was slanted in that direction, all I could think of was the need for a manuscript to succeed on submission. But when that thought consumed me, every day without a new book deal felt like a failure. So to try to escape that negative mindset, I tried to shift my thinking to assume that all my submission would be failures. That way, I figured if I was perpetually prepared for the worst, then I could be inured against rejection.
Honestly, it was a step forward, but it was still kind of a hopeless mentality. It was only when Zen in the Art of Writing really reminded me that success, big or small, isn’t the point at all. But rather the joy and honesty of it. The point is to mine the originality of our own experience to more fully perceive the world around us.
And you might look at that, and think, “well, obviously, Hayley.” But knowing a thing and your bones knowing a thing are two different beasts entirely. Only when I’d accepted the inherent worth of my own words and the exercise of writing—two things that no rejection could ever steal from me—was I able to relax again. I felt free to write what I *needed* to write. To take my time. To soak it in. To enjoy creation and the truths it reveals to myself. To, as Ray Bradbury put it, get “busy loving and hating.”
Once solidly in this new headspace, I then felt weirdly confident. Because I knew, naturally, that I’ve survived hundreds of rejections, and that any matter of hundreds more would not blow my ship over. That I didn’t have to bow to the pressures of industry to burn my little free time to attempt to be a prolific social media marketer first. Because I’d re-found the “why” of my writing. And if we want to get into a Nietzsche quote here, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how,”—the same goes for writing.
Some come what may of our ‘how’—rejections, genAI slop, traditional publishing follower-requirements—I have my ‘why.’ And if you’re a creative struggling with these same realities, I hope you’re able to take a moment to re-center yourself and your work as well. Highly recommend.
January 2025 (Second Round) Scare: Road Trip Action: Getting A Sunburn Character: A Scammer Time Constraint: 48 hours Length: 400 words
I shouldn’t be doing this—driving into the desert with a sack of money is a sign you’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere. But when your sister’s sicko ‘boyfriend’ calls you at the devil’s hour so you can hear her scream for rescue, you follow her down whatever path you must.
The foster homes my sister and I survived forged us into a package deal, so it didn’t take long for Jeff to figure out how to scam us. At this point, we practically reek of famished desperation, with an aversion to law enforcement that must’ve seemed irresistible.
So I hurtle toward the remote coordinates with my heart in my throat. Hunger gnaws at my belly, and my skin burns under the sun’s rays through my open windows whistling in the desiccated air.
An eternity passes before I arrive at the tall rock formation where two cars squat in the shade. Three men surround Grace where she sits, gagged and zip-tied, at their feet. Adrenaline races through me.
This is evil.
Still, I park the car and step onto the sandy earth with shaky legs. “I have the money.” My voice cracks, and I try to swallow, but all the moisture has left my mouth. Everything rides on this.
“Toss it over.” Jeff’s lip curls. “Keys too.”
And there it is. My sister raises her gaunt, tear-streaked face, and a bleak realization jumps between us. I want to tell her I’m sorry, that I’d turn back the clock to a time before monsters if I could. Instead, I throw the items to Jeff. “Let Grace go.”
Their lascivious sneers twist into a deeper ugliness. “And now we have two,” Jeff chuckles.
I scan the desert, but it will bear no witness, so I meet Grace’s pleading gaze. “It’s okay.”
Her shoulders sag, and as the men stalk forward, I let out a shaky breath of pure—
Relief.
Finally, we can eat.
Grace breaks her bindings, and her teeth sink into Jeff’s throat before he can scream. Crimson paints the golden sand as we feast.
Because, yes, we are evil.
And we shouldn’t be doing this.
But in this corner of Death Valley, the larger devils feast on the smaller ones—and we refuse to be small anymore.
After all, if this is the path I must take to feed my sister, I’ll take a road trip through hell any day.
This one came in fifth place in my group and advanced me to the final round. The feedback is below!
WHAT THE JUDGES LIKED ABOUT YOUR STORY
{2124} “The Lesser of Two Devils” creates a believable bond between these two sisters almost immediately, which is essential to carrying the story. You can feel the care the protagonist has for Grace, especially in the paragraph where she wants to apologize.
{1943} Wow. This was a very surprising and intriguing story. I liked the reference to the devil in the first paragraph, which created a strong atmosphere and frightening tone at the start of the story. The characterization of Jeff was very strong. I shuddered at him insisting she threw the money and the keys, and I got chills at the statement “And now we have two.” The sudden energy as Grace broke through and attacked Jeff was startling and thrilling. I loved this idea of the “larger devils” feasting on the smaller ones. This was an extremely satisfying ending!
{2376} You do an excellent job of hooking the reader in with a compelling opening line, and the way you establish the intense stakes with the image of Grace screaming for help over the phone sparks a riveting sense of suspense. The way you leave the reader to assume that our character is way over her head while subtly setting up the reveal to come is some really impressive writing, and the surface tension of the scene before Grace breaks her bindings leaves the reader hanging in dread for the moment we think we’re headed for. The reversal of Grace biting Jeff is one of the best twists I’ve seen anywhere in a long time. And the way that you bring everything together with the callbacks to earlier lines as the story winds down leaves the reader with a delightfully dark ending.
WHAT THE JUDGES FEEL NEEDS WORK
{2124} Although it’s clear that “The Lesser of Two Devils” is stepping carefully in an attempt to set up its reveal, the first half of this story feels disconnected from the second. There’s a hard pivot from Grace seeming helpless to being a monster in no real danger from Jeff. In a longer story, there would be ample space to explore what moral and emotional concerns could be leashing Grace while keeping all of the introduction and more. There isn’t the case here. Consider trimming details in the first half of this story in order to make room for foreshadowing and hints that something beyond physical limitations is constraining Grace (something that would also help characterize her and her sister more). If done tactfully, this won’t give anything away while also making the story smoother. As far as suggestions for cutting, it might be beneficial to trim the sentence-long description of our protagonist’s dry mouth. Also consider condense the introduction – particularly the last sentence; do we need the “aversion to law enforcement” portion? Would “isolation” or another word work in its stead? How many instances of “and” could you cut from this story; how many adjectives are truly pulling their weight? You’re good at what you do. Condense this story to its desperate, nasty core.
{1943} I felt that at times, your sentences became a little long and unwieldy. For example, I wasn’t sure that you needed “whistling in the desiccated air” at the end of the paragraph describing her driving towards her sister. You might also consider phrases such as “but all the moisture has left my mouth”, where you’d already shown that she was struggling to swallow. We knew it was hot, so I’m not sure we needed this detail. I wasn’t sure that you needed the quotation marks around “boyfriend” in your first paragraph. I found this a bit distracting, and it created a pause in the flow of the story just as you were pulling us in. I would simply call him her sicko boyfriend, and let us figure out that he was untrustworthy, which you’d really told us with the fact that he was a “sicko”. If the intention was to show us that he wasn’t actually her boyfriend because Grace was conning Jeff by pretending to be his girlfriend, this also felt unnecessary. I would simply let us assume that he was her boyfriend before this drama unfolded.
{2376} There’s so much already going right in this story, but something you might consider in a potential revision would be end with the line “and we refuse to be small anymore.” The final line of the current draft leaves us with a satisfying punchline that releases the tension you’ve built up so well, but something you might try instead would be to let the tension linger, leaving the reader with a more ominous cliffhanger of an ending with the suggestion that this is only the beginning and these sisters are now out for revenge. Another idea you might consider would be to provide a hint of what’s to come in the line “My sister raises her gaunt, tear-streaked face, and a bleak realization jumps between us.” You do such a great job of sustaining the misdirection right up to the moment of the reveal, but you might also try pulling a thread loose by tweaking this line so that Grace does something unexpected. If, for example, you recast this line as something like a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth in place of the bleak realization, you could present the reader with a strange moment that will spark a sense of mystery, leaving us with the feeling that we should’ve seen the twist coming, even if the story’s so well constructed that there’s no way we ever would.
Thanks for reading! You can find the rest of my NYC Midnight Challenge entries and feedback here.
October 2025 (First Round) Scare: Tomorrow Action: Updating Character: A Doorman Time Constraint: 48 hours Length: 400 words
The emergency sirens split the scream-ridden air as we race toward the shelter. The alarms have been going off for hours now, and at this point, I doubt there’s anyone left to turn them off. Shattering glass and gunshots pepper the panicked streets as the clock ticks toward midnight, the uncanny lights hovering above the city. Sophie clings to me as I run while tugging Liam along with one hand and updating my voicemail with our destination for the friends and family I couldn’t reach.
“What about Daddy?” Liam shrieks as we dodge around a raving drunk.
“He’ll meet us there.” The lie is sour on my tongue, but I wasted so much time trying to contact my shifty ex-husband with the tomorrow ultimatum breathing down our necks. I gave him as many minutes as I could, but nightmares require sacrifices.
We turn the corner, and finally the solid concrete building of town hall comes into view with four minutes left.
A tall man in a bullet-proof vest with a rifle slung over his shoulder stands in front of the door. Chest heaving, I stagger up to him and flash the email on my phone. “We’re assigned to this shelter.”
A baseball cap obscures his eyes, and a neck gaiter is pulled up over his nose, muffling his voice. “We’re full.”
I freeze, blood roaring in my ears as Sophie whimpers into my shoulder. “But they said we’d be safe here,” I say. “Where else are we supposed to go?”
“Go home,” the doorman says.
I shove my phone in his face, only two minutes left and sweat running down my nose. “We’ll never make it.”
“Andrea.” The doorman squeezes my arms, and I finally recognize my ex, his gaze fervent. “It’s full.”
The siren falls silent and with it, the city, as if the world collectively holds its breath.
“But, Matt, they’re feeding…” Tears trickle down my cheeks, and my gaze darts to the threatening lights now blotting out the darkness. I tried to protect my babies. I swear, God, I tried.
The hungry lights pinpoint the building, and a massive, inhuman shadow drops from the sky onto the roof. I gasp, my body going rigid. They’re coming for us.
Matt folds us in his arms, hiding Liam’s face. “Don’t look.”
And when the screams start, and blood sprays the windows from the inside—I remember.
Nightmares require sacrifices.
This one came in third place in my group and advanced me to round 2. The feedback is below!
WHAT THE JUDGES LIKED ABOUT YOUR STORY
{2549} The setting is super interesting and creatively sci-fi creepy. I loved it! The story’s urgency is evident through word choices (nouns and verbs) such as emergency sirens, split, shrieks, roaring, and the world collectively holds its breath. The twist in the end, where Matt seems to allow the people IN the shelter to become the sacrifice, is quite unexpected. Nice job.
{2144} I really like the set up of the story and the way you drop us right in the middle of the action. The sounds of the chaos around the narrator and her children, them having to run to the shelter with just minutes to spare, and the blaring sirens all really provide a lot of tension and urgency to the story from the very get-go. I also really love the silence that happens the minute it actually turns to midnight. The sudden change in atmosphere really gives a quick glimpse of the scale of things to come.
{2573} That last line sent a proper shiver down my spine! This was such a complex story to fit into such a small word count and I really liked the sci-fi aspect of it. The shifty ex-husband that turns out to be protecting her was a nice touch. Updating the voicemail with a location was a brilliant way to include the prompt – really original! I liked the twist too – that the safe zone she’d been assigned to was in fact a kill shelter of sorts. The whole piece had very WWII vibes to it, with the sirens and gunfire feeling reminiscent of the blitz, and the town hall feeling like a gas chamber. Add a little War of the Worlds and you’re right there. I don’t know if that was intentional, but it brought to mind a very vivid picture for me.
WHAT THE JUDGES FEEL NEEDS WORK
{2549} A craft issue of clarity happens here: “I wasted so much time trying to contact my shifty ex-husband with the tomorrow ultimatum breathing down our necks. I gave him as many minutes as I could, but nightmares require sacrifices.” Specifically, what is the tomorrow ultimatum, why does it matter, and how come it’s not mentioned again? Does it have a connection to the story’s ending? Clarity is perhaps the most important writing element to master in flash fiction because we get so few words to get the meaning across. You can fix the issue in a couple of ways. 1. Cut the reference. (I realize that also takes out “tomorrow,” but the revision is still valid. 2. Clarify what the narrator means by “tomorrow.” Again, does it foreshadow the ending? If so, help the reader understand that better. All the best to you!
{2144} I think the set up is so great and provides instant momentum to the story, but I’m not quite sure if I follow why Matt doesn’t let the narrator and his kids into the shelter. Is the shelter actually full? Or is Matt just being a jerk? If he also had access to the shelter, why did he not tell the protagonist and her children? I just think that the series of events as Matt denies them entry need to be a little more cohesive so we can understand why the narrator and her children are left to danger. I also think in general it would be helpful to have a line or two more about the ultimatum. I don’t quite understand what the advantage is of staying home versus being in the shelters, and more information about that would help us understand the importance of these final seconds and why it all comes down to that to try to get to a new location.
{2573} It’s a small thing, but I would have liked to know a bit more about the Tomorrow Ultimatum, because I didn’t really have a sense of what was happening right up until the end. I appreciate that the word count is tight, but you could take out the sentence about the alarms having been going off for hours, which would give you a few words to build the threat round the ultimatum.
Thanks for reading! You can find the rest of my NYC Midnight Challenge entries and feedback here.
December 2025 (First Round) Genre: Historical Fiction Action: Quenching Word: Other Time Constraint: 48 hours Length: 250 words
I smelled the fire before I saw it. But even with my lips chapped by drought, I paid the wind’s taint no mind. The evening chill required our hearths to warm our stews and our bones.
But the screams from the railroad were undeniable—the glow on the horizon much too late for sunset. The flames leapt from tree to tree with wicked speed, like demons racing from hell to claim us.
Peshtigo came alive with panicked shrieks. Adrenaline blotting out all else, I raced for Beth’s house. Though we had yet to speak our vows, if the reaper was to find us, I wanted to be at her side. We crashed together on main street, the flames already licking at the roofs around us—the tears on her face glowing in the inferno.
Smoke clogged our lungs and embers peppered our skin. Elizabeth’s skirt caught flame, and in desperation, I dragged her to the well. She sobbed as I lowered her down, praying she’d survive the fall. She dropped with a splash and a hiss, the icy, knee-high water quenching her smoldering dress. I clambered after her, and we clutched one another through the night. The cold nearly killing us in hateful irony.
But perhaps the greatest irony of all was that the headlines would only remember Chicago’s flames on that same October day.
I suppose because Chicago still had people to grieve her losses.
In the mass graves of Peshtigo, there weren’t enough left of us to mourn.
Unfortunately, this one didn’t place, but the feedback is below!
WHAT THE JUDGES LIKED ABOUT YOUR STORY
{2501} The description throughout this story is so vivid and creates powerful images of these devastating events, allowing for a strong emotional impact. You do a great job describing feelings of fear and the terrifying sensation of running through a burning town. Elizabeth’s skirt catching fire is a particularly effective moment of building tension before it’s revealed that the narrator saves her by getting her into the well. I also thought the comparison at the end of how Chicago’s fire is remembered more even with less deaths was a powerful ending to further showcase just how tragic this event was. Overall, some of my favorite lines throughout the story include “The flames leapt from tree to tree with wicked speed, like demons racing from hell to claim us” and “Smoke clogged our lungs and embers peppered our skin.”
{2373} There’s a truly haunting story here. The author brings the horrors of the Peshtigo fire and this narrator’s plight to life through active, sharp prose. The second paragraph alone is truly horrific and paints great images of the conflagration, namely the “screams from the railroad” and the flames leaping “like demons racing from hell to claim us.” I also like how in addition to the immediate and broader external stakes for the community, the author’s woven in the personal and emotional ones with the narrator’s desperate efforts to save Elizabeth. The description of her in the well yet again highlights the author’s powerful prose (along with the irony of the cold being an antagonist): “She dropped with a splash and a hiss, the icy-knee high water quenching her smoldering dress.” Lastly, the coda works well on several levels: It both highlights the narrator’s understandable anger, while also deftly reminding us about the more famous fire that’s consumed Chicago.
{2458} Wow—your story gripped me from beginning to end with its visceral sensory imagery, use of suspense, and final note of historical irony by contextualizing the tragedy in global awareness (or the lack thereof). I especially enjoyed how you transitioned to this larger historical context with the clever parallel use of irony; just as Beth and the narrator leap from the flames to the water, you leap seamlessly from Peshtigo to the media.
WHAT THE JUDGES FEEL NEEDS WORK
{2501} The story could be even stronger with more personal resolution for Elizabeth and the narrator’s experience. Typically, we think of wells as being relatively deep, so I wondered if they were able to get out on their own come morning or if they had to be rescued by the few other survivors. If they needed help getting out, I think there could be power in the emotions of not knowing if there was anyone left to come help them. I also wondered if they suffered any personal losses in the fire, like family members or close friends. If so much of the population perished, it would make sense if they did, and I think seeing some of that grief at that end could be effective. To make room for these details in the word count, consider removing the first few sentences to start the story with “The screams from the railroad…”
{2373} To heighten the emotional stakes, I think it might be good to get more of a sense of why the narrator loves Beth. Given that this is a time of significant duress, that will help us see what the narrator could potentially lose in this conflagration. I also think it might be good to slow down and try to describe the increasing cold a tad more, so that we can feel that dark tension; I get that the word count limits make that tough, but I do think an additional line could heighten the terror of the cold on the page. On a micro level, I’d suggest a number of trims throughout. For example, in the second paragraph, I think the author could omit “wicked speed;” that’s clear from the emphasis on the flames leaping and in that great comparison to “demons racing from hell to claim us.” In the third paragraph, I would omit “panicked;” the shrieks strongly imply the sense of panic, given the situation. In the fourth paragraph, we also don’t need to be told that the narrator drags Elizabeth to the well “in desperation;” again, we can infer that because of her skirt’s on fire. I also think the author could omit “hateful irony” when describing how the narrator and Elizabeth almost perished. We can see that irony for ourselves; the story’s far more powerful if the author doesn’t point it out, along with directly telling us how ironic it was that Chicago burned on the same day; just mentioning Chicago alone shows us that irony, especially juxtaposed against the aftermath of Peshtigo (but that coda, again, otherwise works quite well). But I wish the author well! This piece has so much potential!
{2458} The primary feedback for improvement I have about your story regards this sentence: “Though we had yet to speak our vows, if the reaper was to find us, I wanted to be at her side.” Because the vows are never mentioned again, they felt a little ambiguous and a narrative thread left somewhat uncontextualized, and thus I think you should clarify that (I think) Beth and the narrator are engaged, to prevent any excess confusion; for me personally I only realized this after multiple reads. To make room for this relationship clarification, I recommend you cut down on some of the setup description on the fire, such as the demons comparison, which isn’t absolutely necessary to conveying the utter terror of the fire.
Thanks for reading! You can find the rest of my NYC Midnight Challenge entries and feedback here.
I’m so excited to announce I’ll be returning to the WriteHive Mentorship Program for my second year as a mentor. I had a great experience as a mentee in 2023, and again as a mentor in 2024, so I highly recommend this program to anyone looking for some help in whipping their manuscript into shape! I’ve included my mentor wishlist, profile and expectations below, but I highly recommend you check out all the mentor profiles here.
While you don’t submit to a specific mentor, I found it super helpful last year when applicants listed a few mentors they thought would be a good fit in their query/submission letters.
Also, if you’re curious as to what I’m looking for in submissions, you can find my breakdown of the submissions from last year here.
Last year, I went with Erin Scheuer‘s sweet new adult romantic comedy with YA crossover appeal which had huge K-drama vibes that I absolutely adored. But honestly this year, I’m pretty open when it comes to target audience and genre. There will be a Mentor AMA on WriteHive’s Discord & Bluesky next week if you have more questions, but if you’re on the fence about submitting, I hope you decide to take the leap!
Submissions will be open from Nov 14-16 and I can’t wait to see what comes in. If you’re submitting, good luck, and I’m excited to read your pitch!
This was originally on a page on my website, but since I’ve mostly gotten out of writing flash fiction except for the NYC midnight challenge, I thought I’d move the little stories here instead. This one’s a microfic I wrote for the monthly 100 word story challenge years ago.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
The office clown
I squint for a moment, then my eyes widen with recognition. “Susan?” The garish orange clown pockets her juggling balls, her painted smile faltering, but I press on. “From accounting?”
Her shoulders fold in as she looks down her red nose at the ground, looking just like she did when I caught her eating a cheap tv dinner in her cramped corner cube yesterday. But in another beat, she straightens and puffs out her chest, jaw set with defiance before pulling a banana out from behind my ear and cartwheeling away.
Well, tomorrow’s staff meeting is going to be awkward.
This was originally on a page on my website, but since I’ve mostly gotten out of writing flash fiction except for the NYC midnight challenge, I thought I’d move the little stories here instead. This one’s a microfic I wrote for the monthly 100 word story challenge years ago.
Image by Hans at Pixabay.
GOldie
Jesse never wanted a goldfish. He had asked his mother for a puppy for his birthday, and she had gotten him a hard glass bowl with the floating orange gawker—a thirty cent companion from Walmart.
He blinked at the fish, and it blinked back. And yet, when his brother had knocked it off the table to flop helplessly on the linoleum, Jesse had scooped it up in a panic. Once rescued, it did not purr or wag its tail in thanks.
But that was okay. Apparently, a thing didn’t have to love you for you to love it back.
Save the Cat writes a novel completely changed my writing process for the better. So I decided it was time for a reread and I wanted to get a hard copy instead of an ebook, so I figured I’d pick up the YA version (since I write almost exclusively YA.) While I still find the plotting and the beatsheets to be incredibly helpful, I preferred the non-YA version. (It just felt more universal with sharper examples.) But I was glad I reread it to brush up on plotting tools, archetypes, and devices.
Since it’s a craft book, no star rating for this one.
All for saving the cat, but not super into the YA version.
So I became a WriteHive mentor because I wanted to pay forward all the wisdom and experience the writing community had gifted me over the years. And since I’ve done quite a lot of beta reading, critique swaps with partners, and also worked with quite a few editors over the years, I felt pretty comfortable that I’d be able to help someone improve their manuscript.
But what I totally wasn’t expecting was everything I learned during the manuscript selection process. I hadn’t considered that this was the first time I was on the other side of an acceptance/rejection decision. And what it brought it really home for me was that authors had actually requested me as a mentor in their queries!🤯I was so completely flattered and blown away.
In this article, I’m going to break down how I narrowed the submissions to select my mentee, the materials I looked at, and the questions I asked myself along the way. I found this a very enlightening process and thought it might be helpful for others going through the querying or submission trenches. However, please keep in mind, everyone has their own methods for selecting manuscripts for both representation, mentoring, and publication. This was simply the process and realizations I had during mine.
Here’s a quick breakdown of how many submissions came in for 17 mentors:
140 submissions (a 52% increase over 2024 – yay!)
Age demographic submission breakdown:
MG: 12 (8.6%)
YA: 39 (27.9%)
NA: 15 (10.7%)
Adult: 74 (52.8%)
Publishing path submission breakdown:
Unsure about Publishing Path: 21 (15%)
Self Publishing: 14 (10%)
Indie / Small Press: 20 (14.3%)
Traditional: 85 (60.7%)
And genre breakdown:
Fantasy: 51 (36.4%)
Romance: 23 (16.4%)
Romantasy: 23 (16.4%)
Contemporary/Literary/Nonfiction: 17 (12.2%)
Horror/Suspense/Mystery: 16 (11.4%)
Sci-Fi: 10 (7.2%)
Each submission included their bio, the state of their manuscript (where was it in the writing process), pitch, their query letter, a synopsis, and their full manuscript. But how to narrow it down? I really wanted to make sure I picked the mentee who I could help most. A manuscript I could really fall in love with, but also one that I could help in a concrete way.
The first cut
So, even though I had outlined my general preferences in my MSWL (manuscript wishlist), I read the pitch, query, and first page of all 140 submissions, with one question in mind:
Does the premise grab me?
Based on that question alone (which, by the way, had *nothing* to do with the talent of the author or the quality of writing and everything to do with personal preference), I was able to cut my list down from 140 to 26.
That, in itself, blew me away. After all, I’ve received many rejections, and of course, every time, I assumed it was because I wasn’t a good enough author. My writing wasn’t good enough. The story wasn’t good enough.
But here I was, cutting 81% of the submissions with no regard to quality at all. Honestly, I probably could’ve done it based on the pitch alone.
Interesting.
So with that cut, my list was down to: 3/12 Middle Grade: 25% 9/39 Young Adult: 23% 2/15 New Adult: 13% 12/74 Adult: 16% Total Longlist: 26/140
The Second cut
For there, I reviewed the bio, the state of the manuscript, their synopsis, and their query again. From these materials, the mentees included information on if they’d started querying it, which paths – traditional, small press, or self-publishing – they’d consider pursuing, and what they were looking for in a mentorship.
On my second cut, I was asking myself: Is this a mentee I can help? Am I the type of mentor they’re looking for?
Once again, I was not considering the quality of the story or writing at all. I was simply trying to ascertain at this point if we could be a good match based on my strengths and the kind of mentor they were looking for.
In the second cut I went from a longlist of 26 to a longlist of 12.
So at this point, I had cut 91% of the submission without considering quality of writing or story.
The third cut
The third is where I finally read the entirety of the first chapter and then asked myself: Am I drawn to keep reading? This is the first question I’d asked that could have been attributed to writing quality.
The third cut took me from a longlist of 12 to a short list of 7: 2 Young Adult Manuscripts and 5 Adult Manuscripts. From there, I read further into the manuscripts, and once again, this time, looking for the manuscript that I thought would be most suited to my tastes. In the end, I chose the story I had extremely concrete recommendations for, one which was very much suited to my personal taste, and had an author who was searching for knowledge areas I had. And just as an aside, only one of my top 3 choices showed up on another mentor’s top 3. For the most part, all of our top 3 choices were radically different.
So what’s the point?
When it came to publishing, I’d often heard the phrase “right eyes, right time.” Meaning essentially, that there are tons of quality stories out there, but you need to find the right agent/editor that’s the best fit to champion yours at the right time in the market. Which… comes down to a lot of factors outside of your control.
But once again, every time I faced a rejection, it was so easy to take it as a sign that I wasn’t good enough to be an author. Or the story wasn’t good enough to be published. But the truth is, writing, as an artform, is so personal. No one book is for everyone – and that fact is as true before publishing as after it.
So, if you submitted to the WriteHive mentorship, please don’t be discouraged in any way if you weren’t selected as a mentee. It really has no reflection on your ability as a writer or a storyteller, but rather simply, if your story was a good match for the mentors reading submissions this year.
And as I continue to trudge on in the submission trenches, I’m trying to keep the very same lesson in mind. That my stories need to find the right eyes at the right time. Whether that’s next week or next year or in three years really isn’t up to me. All I can do is be patient and keep writing the best stories that I can.
Hopefully, if you’re in the query or submission trenches, this has been helpful in some way and can also help you to find the mindset and perseverence you need on your writing journey.
Rejections are tough. There’s no two ways about it. Just remember to take care of yourself, take lots of breaks, and keep on keeping on. Begin. Grow. Persevere.
So, this year marks a new chapter for me as an author. Though still battling imposter syndrome (as I think most authors do to some extent), I’m making a conscious effort to give back to the writing community this year.
As such, I’m officially a judge for the WriteHive Indie Ink Awards! As a judge, I’ll be reading six books in the next six months, scoring them in a rubric and rating them in the categories they were nominated. Out of the nominees, I’ve actually already selected the six I intend to read and downloaded my first read. Best Audio Narration & Best Light Read are the two categories I’m feeling in this season of life, so that’s where I’ll be hanging out.
But personally, I’m a big fan of book awards as a way to distinguish and lift up authors (indie authors especially) and I’m so excited to be a part of it.
But that’s not all!
This year, I’m also a 2025 WriteHive Mentor! This is an extra special opportunity for me since I was actually a 2023 WriteHive Mentee with EJ Dawson as my mentor, and I learned so much! I was so excited to pay it forward, and even more excited to pick Erin Scheuer as my mentee. I absolutely fell in love with her rock star/celebrity romance Love Songs and Other Lies, (which reads JUST like a K-drama, you all—squeee!!!), and we clicked instantly on our first call.
She’s entering into the revision phase, and I’m so excited to see her take her manuscript to the next level. Everyone is absolutely going to love her sweet, complicated characters, and I’m so excited for the world to meet them! Check out the mock cover and moodboard I put together for her!
It was also super interesting to be on the other side of the submission/rejection process, and I learned quite a lot. (Separate post coming on that soon!)
All in all, this has been such a positive experience so far, and I’m so glad I was able to take the leap to jump into these opportunities! I’ll be posting the books I review for Indie Ink awards here just like any other book, but when the results come out I’ll definitely post an update on the winners! And of course, if anything exciting happens with Erin’s Love Songs & Other Lies, I’ll be sure to post about that too, because I’m pulling hard for it!
Hayley Reese Chow 