Passion Project: A Declaration of Declinations, as well As An Attempt At Prompts.

So, as the title of this post may suggest, I got some feedback about the other three stories I sent to Cicada.
They all got declined, saying they "weren't quite right for us".
Thanks, but some actual feedback would be nice....

I also sent one story to a magazine called Canvas Literary Journal. They declined that one as well, which is more upsetting because that one, in my opinion, is my best. However they said that they had a lot to choose from and it was a difficult decision, so that's somewhat of a plus.

I have not found any other magazines yet, but I think I will submit the short story from CLJ to Cicada, just to see what they think of it. I'm sort of just at square one now. 

Maybe one day when I'm older I'll just publish a short story/poem collection of the stuff that didn't get accepted, like Jane Austin's "Minor Works". (Though that was published after she died, but that isn't the point.)

I have also tried to do this thing I found on the internet, which was a daily prompt thing for December. I thought I would be able to keep up with it and pull it off beter than the NANOWRIMO, since it's just short stories or poetry, but I was wrong. It seems to me that when I write something that's actually good it comes sort of like that neighbor kid's baseball through your kitchen window and you can't get the window fixed until you finish the story. 

It also happens in the middle of the night and you can't not write it down because if you don't you'll loose it; but also it's late and there's school tomorrow. An understandable reason for me to have a small flashlight under my mattress. (It isn't quite under per say, but it's between the mattress and the bedframe. Otherwise close enough.)

One example would be my Poem "How To Kill A Mockingbird" written when we did the thing with "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", and inspired by the fact that I kept miss-reading the title of TKAM. Basically it's about killing a mockingbird by taking away it's freedoms, and thus it's spirit, where the mockingbird symbolic of humans.

So I've learned a few things. Publishers and editors are just wrong sometimes, proper inspiration only comes to me when I'm half asleep and it's the middle of the night, and if I force an idea it just really does not work. 

My Creativity and My Insomnia in the Depths of the Night