The Publication Meeting You Keep Forgetting to Attend

Lisa Kelly, MSN, RN

Writer’s Camp Counselor

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A simple practice for staying in relationship with your writing.

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We often think the problem is motivation. We wait for the right stretch of time, the right mental clarity, the right external deadline. We wait to feel ready or confident. Or certain that a piece is “worth” sending out.

And while we’re waiting, our drafts quietly pile up.

Not abandoned, exactly. Just paused. Set aside with good intentions. Promises we fully meant to keep when things slowed down, when life felt less demanding, when we had more space to think.

What I’ve learned, slowly and somewhat reluctantly, is that writing doesn’t stall because I don’t care enough. It stalls because no one is asking me to account for it. Sustained progress is less about motivation and more about structure, planning, and paying attention to what I say I will do.¹

About a year ago, I had multiple pieces in various stages of development. Some had been revised several times. Some had been sent out once and rejected. Some were “almost ready,” which is often the most dangerous category of all.

I knew what I should be doing. I just wasn’t doing it consistently.

So I built something small and surprisingly effective: a recurring publication meeting with myself.

Not a productivity sprint or a motivational ritual. A meeting. I put it on my calendar once a month for 30 minutes. I show up, and I don’t cancel it just because I don’t feel like facing my own writing decisions that week.

What I Review in My Own Meetings

A publication meeting is not about generating new words. It’s about owning your writing trajectory. I keep this intentionally simple. Complexity is the enemy here.

I look at three things:

• Active pieces: What is currently drafted, revised, or submitted?
• Stalled pieces: What hasn’t moved in more than 6 to 8 weeks (not on the journal’s end, but on mine)?
• Commitments: What did I say I would do that I haven’t done yet?

Sometimes the answer is, “I need to send this out again.”
Sometimes it’s, “This needs another revision before it’s ready.”
Sometimes it’s, “I don’t want to work on this anymore.”

The goal is not to rescue every piece. The goal is to be honest and get crystal clear on your work. It is easy to underestimate how much forward momentum comes from clarity alone.

I have found it helpful to keep a simple tracker of my active, stalled, and submitted pieces. I built one for myself to make these meetings easier to hold, but it does not need to be complicated. A basic document or spreadsheet is enough. What matters is not the format. It is having a place where your writing is visible, and where your next decision is clear.

Why Waiting Doesn’t Work

Many of us were implicitly or explicitly trained to treat publication as something that happens to us rather than something we actively steward.

We send something out. Then we wait.

If it’s accepted, we act. If it’s rejected, we feel bruised, take a break, and eventually decide what to do next. If we don’t hear anything, we linger in limbo, unsure whether to nudge, revise, or move on.

This creates a strange dynamic in which we are deeply invested in our work but oddly passive about its progress. A publication meeting disrupts that pattern.

It reminds you that waiting is still a choice. And that choosing not to decide is still deciding.

The Kindness of Structure

A meeting creates a boundary. For 30 minutes, you are allowed to think about publication. Outside of that time, you do not have to carry it constantly. That is not rigidity, it’s kindness.

Research suggests that personal accountability can function as a protective resource, reducing strain and supporting sustained engagement with complex work under high demands. When accountability is framed as orientation rather than surveillance, it supports people in staying connected to complex, meaningful work rather than burning out under it.¹

Writing groups, accountability partners, and communal writing spaces can be incredibly helpful in this regard. There is something powerful about showing up for others, naming goals out loud, and being held by shared expectations. Writing accountability groups, in particular, have been shown to increase writing productivity and consistency by pairing goal setting with regular progress reporting and shared structure.²

But another layer of accountability often gets overlooked.

That is learning to be accountable to yourself, even when no one is watching, no deadline is looming, and no group is waiting for an update. This is quieter work. It asks you to notice what you say you will do and whether you follow through, not out of pressure, but out of respect.

This is where the publication meeting becomes something more than a planning tool. It becomes a place to practice integrity with your own writing life. It is also a place where your identity as a writer becomes visible, not in what you produce in a moment, but in what you choose to return to over time.

I want to be very clear about something: this is not about being harder on yourself. In fact, it’s the opposite. When you don’t have a container for publication decisions, they live in the background of your mind. They surface at inconvenient moments. They carry guilt. They blur together. Everything feels vaguely unfinished.

A meeting gives those decisions a place to land.

Multiple Irons in the Fire (on Purpose)

One of the most important shifts this practice created for me was moving away from the idea that I should have one precious piece at a time. I now intentionally keep multiple articles in play.

Not because I’m trying to overwhelm myself, but because it changes the emotional stakes. Rejection stings less when it’s not the only thing you’re waiting on. Revision feels more doable when it’s not the sole place your creative energy is invested.

This doesn’t mean working on everything at once. It means allowing your writing life to have range. A publication meeting helps you see that range clearly.

Personal Accountability Without Negative Self-Talk

There’s a particular kind of accountability that feels harsh and external. This isn’t that.

It’s the accountability of noticing that you’ve told yourself, three times now, that you’ll resubmit something “next week.” It’s the accountability of recognizing that avoidance often shows up as busyness, not laziness.

And it’s the accountability of choosing, consciously, whether a piece still matters to you.

Sometimes, the most responsible thing you can do is let a draft go. That might not mean forever, but it does mean for right now.

What Changed for Me

I hesitate to frame this as a magic solution. It isn’t. Writing is still hard. Rejection still hurts. Time is still limited.

But something fundamental shifted when I stopped outsourcing my sense of progress to journals, editors, or external timelines. I began to feel less at the mercy of the process and more in relationship with it.

Behind the scenes, this practice enabled multiple projects to move forward at once. Not because I suddenly had more discipline, but because I had more visibility.

Conclusion: An Invitation, Not an Instruction

If you’re reading this and feeling a little exposed, that’s understandable. Most newer writers I know are carrying more unfinished work than they want to admit.

This is not a call to be relentless. It’s an invitation to be intentional.

Put a meeting with yourself on the calendar. Keep it small. Show up even when the answers aren’t flattering. Especially then.

Because writing doesn’t just deserve your passion. It deserves your attention. And sometimes, the most meaningful progress begins with finally attending the meeting you’ve been avoiding.

References

1. Shellenbarger T. Revisiting writing productivity: ten years later with ten additional tips. The Writer’s Camp Journal, 2026; 2(1):16. doi:10.5281/zenodo.18773461
2. Cohen M, Drach-Zahavy A, Srulovici E. The dual protective role of accountability: Mitigating missed nursing care and nurse moral distress in a nested diary study design. Journal of Clinical  Nursing, 2025;34(5):1741-1752. doi:10.1111/jocn.17322
3. Stritch JM. Enhancing academic writing confidence and productivity: The impact of Technological University of Shannon WEWRITE!. Journal of Professional Nursing, 2025;60:32-35. doi:10.1016/j.profnurs.2025.06.007

Author: Lisa Kelly

Reviewed and Edited: Leslie H. Nicoll

Copyright © 2026, Writer’s Camp and Lisa Kelly. CC-BY-ND-4.0

Citation: Kelly L. The publication meeting you keep forgetting to attend. The Writer’s Camp Journal, 2026; 2(2):5. doi:10.5281/zenodo.19665392