Sci-fi, fantasy, and everything in-between
Archive for January, 2010
Ow! Reality!
Jan 25th
Today, I’m formally revising my end goal for January to 15 short story submissions. I just don’t have 10 more stories of publishable quality available. The remainder are either in need of significant rewrites or entirely unsellable in current form. These are mostly stories that are several years old. I’m proud to say I’m a better writer now, but that means I’m not willing to submit stories that don’t reflect that. These aren’t bad stories, they’re just… Less mature? Less complex? Whatever it is, they’re not ready, and might never be.
So I guess that means I need to write more.
It’s a process, not an end result
Jan 19th
Have you ever woken up and thought, “Today, I feel like a complete success. Everything I touch turns to gold, I finish what I put my mind to, and my dreams are coming to fruition.”
Yeah, me neither.
If you’re like me, you’re not a writer. Oh, you want to be one, sure. Maybe sometimes you even put words on paper. Maybe you mail those word-laden pages out to magazines and agents. But a writer? A real one? Hah! Don’t make me laugh.
The truth is, I’ve never really felt, deep down, that I am a writer. More often, I feel like a failed writer, or a writer-wannabe. Sales don’t seem to make any difference. I can’t possibly compare to other writers I know. I’m a pretender, but they’re the real deal.
I have it on good authority that they feel the same way. There’s always someone “better” to compare yourself disparagingly to.
But lately, I’ve been trying to take this feeling, examine it dispassionately from the outside, accept that this is how I will always feel, and move on from it. I will never feel like a writer to my bones, because no one is a writer.
No one. Not you, not me, not your favorite authors. And that’s just fine.
Allow me to elaborate. Being a writer is a process, not an end result. When I ask myself if I’m a writer, it’s the wrong question, and will always and inevitably lead to an answer I do not like. So now, I try to ask myself if I’m writing.
More often than not, the answer is yes.
So the next time you wake up and find yourself wondering if you’re a writer, try accepting the idea that you are not. Your results may vary, but I’ve found it relieving. The pressure’s off, and I can then sit down and do some writing.
Because after all… I’m a writer, damnit.
Still plugging along
Jan 19th
Yeah, I’m way behind now. I’m at 12 total submissions for the month. But — and this is important — most of the stories going in the mail now are new. That is, stories that have never been submitted to any market before. While I no longer think I’m going to manage 25 submissions this month, I’ve gotten more almost-complete stories to actual completion than in the entire last year. So in that sense, it’s been a very rewarding challenge, even if I completely fail.
The last three submission story titles and genres (for those who are curious):
- Leaving the Service (Science fiction)
- Even Better (Horror)
- Downloads (Science fiction)
Members of the Wordos might recognize two of those titles, and Blake Hutchins inspired the entire plot of Downloads.
I need to rethink things
Jan 15th
OK, I’m probably not going to make 25 story submissions by the end of the month. There are plenty of markets, even excluding the ones that are closed until February, but I think I made a mistake on the other side of the equation.
I’ve been going over the stories I currently have marked as submission-ready, and a lot of them really aren’t. They’re contest entries or stories I wrote for particular markets, and don’t really fit anywhere outside the contexts in which I wrote them. They require some significant alterations before they’ll really be suitable for submission at other markets.
And some of my stories are old enough that I’m not sure I want to submit them anywhere. I’m a better writer now, and they’re not quality examples of my work.
Finally — and this is a problem I’m glad to have — I’ve sold too many. I’m not expecting sympathy about this, mind you.
I did get another submission out today, and I’m pleased with that, but I’m beginning to think I don’t have enough truly finished stories to make 25. We shall see.
Challenge on hiatus until tomorrow
Jan 14th
I’m putting a halt to story submissions until tomorrow, when quite a few markets open up again. I’m not rude enough to send my stories to markets they aren’t suitable for and waste an editor’s time just to meet a self-imposed daily quota. I’d rather do a big flurry of better-targeted submissions over the weekend.
Note for other writers in similar situations: There’s no rule that says you can’t get your backlog of submissions ready prior to the day the market opens.
Unforeseen problem: I’m running out of markets
Jan 13th
In some ways, I chose the perfect month to do this submissions push. My days are usually slow in January, so I can take the time to research markets during lunch and breaks, and do my actual editing and writing before and after DayJeorb.
But I forgot just how many markets take extended holidays right around now. From December through January, many speculative fiction magazines stop accepting story submissions. I’ve got several stories I’ve been forced to just wait on, because none of the markets they’re suitable for are available.
Fortunately, a few of them reopen on the 15th. I imagine their slush piles grow very quickly when that happens. I know I’m not the only one with submissions ready to be sent at 12:01 AM that day.
A happy find
Jan 11th
I just put story #9 for this month’s challenge in the mail, and it put a smile on my face. While most of the story is grim, it ends on an upbeat note that makes me feel hopeful every time I read it. But that’s not what really made my evening.
Usually, when I pick up a story I haven’t edited for a while, the experience is roughly akin to picking up a cheese I forgot about in the back of the fridge. And rather than deal with it, I have the urge to just put it back and pretend I never noticed it, despite the smell.
But every once in a while, I rediscover a story I set aside to focus on other things, and it’s good. In this case, I’d forgotten that I’d already gone to the trouble of cleaning it up. So I looked it over, and found only copy-edit changes to make. It’s good enough to go to a market — heck, it was good enough before I tweaked the copy. So this story went from the back-burner to a science fiction market in about an hour.
And that, my friends, is what made my evening.
8 down, 17 to go.
Jan 9th
I didn’t have time to submit anything yesterday, but I’ve hit 8 active submissions in the mail. My stats for the January goal now look like this:
Stories ready for submission: 19
Stories almost ready: 8
Stories made ready as of…
01/06/10: 0
01/07/10: 1
01/08/10: 1
01/09/10: 2
Submissions as of…
01/04/10: 2
01/05/10: 4
01/06/10: 6
01/07/10: 7
01/08/10: 7
01/09/10: 8
Submission goal: 25
So, progress is steady. I’m hoping to get two more in the mail tomorrow. One is a monster, at 11,000 words. Unmarketable length, but goddamnit, I love that story and I’m going to inflict it on every market that accepts stories that long until I find an editor who loves it as much as I do.
Defeating submission inertia
Jan 6th
In this day and age, submitting a story isn’t that hard. Many markets accept electronic submissions, and for those that don’t, the most time-consuming part of the process is printing the manuscript.
Yet more often than not, I find myself procrastinating about actually pulling up a list of markets (say, from ralan.com or duotrope.com) and putting stories out there.
It’s not fear anymore. It used to be, but after your 87th rejection letter, you find your terror of editorial rebuke quite faded.
No, it’s pure inertia. Authors at rest tend to stay at rest. Nobody ever told me that as a neo-pro, I might fall into this trap and have to slog out of it (by way of fun self-challenges like the one that led to six stories in the mail as of this afternoon).
Fortunately, I can report that authors in motion tend to stay in motion. There’s something invigorating about finally getting moving that’s self-perpetuating.
On that note, tonight’s goal: Edit an almost-ready story and make it tomorrow’s first submission.
