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... Publishing Emerging Writers
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In This issue...
One of the more frustrating parts of writing is realizing something you thought was good isn’t really there yet...
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Note: This newsletter ("Publishing New Writers") has over 15,000 subscribers on Linkedin.com
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Almost There, by Henry Fisher
Founder Editor - Navy Pen Literary Magazine
One of the more frustrating parts of writing is realizing something you thought was good isn’t really there yet.
You finish a piece and it feels solid. But then you come back to it, or read it next to something stronger, and it starts to lose what you thought it had. The idea is kind of there, but it doesn’t land the way you thought. The sentences don’t do what you felt they did when you wrote them.
That can be discouraging, especially early on. It’s hard not to take it as a sign that you’re just not very good. But that’s not what it is.
It usually means you’re starting to see your own work more clearly. You can tell the difference between what you intended and what actually made it onto the page. Once you can see that gap, it becomes one of the most useful things you have.
I started a literary magazine called Navy Pen about a year ago. Reading through hundreds of submissions taught me to recognize that gap in other people’s work before I could reliably spot it in my own. A piece would come in that was almost there, with a strong premise, but wasn’t quite working yet. Usually it wasn’t that the writing was bad. It was that it hadn’t been pushed far enough. The writer had stopped before the work got specific enough to be true.
A lot of people make the mistake of stopping too early. They move on to something new, or assume they’ll improve without going back. But the piece usually isn’t as far off as it seems. It just hasn’t been taken as far as it can go.
That part is less exciting than starting something new. It means going back into something you thought you finished, cutting what felt necessary, making vague things exact, sitting with it longer than feels comfortable. But that’s usually where things start to fall into place.
Not every time. But enough that you start to trust the revision process more than the first draft.
If you’re starting out, I think it helps to expect that feeling rather than be discouraged by it. Most things you write at first will be almost there. That’s not a bad place to be. That’s exactly where it starts.
LinkedIn Link: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/almost-henry-fisher-founder-editor-navy-pen-literary-bruce-cook-a4egc
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Publishing New Writers,
mAY, 2026 (vol. 27, no. 5)
Publisher:
Dr. Bruce L. Cook
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Elgin, IL 60123
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