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More on rejection
May. 19th, 2009 09:52 pmThe full text of the rejection I got reads as follows: Thank you for your story to our magazine, but unfortunately it isn't quite right for Fantasy. We hope that you continue trying, however, and look forward to many more submissions.
Rumor has it that any rejection letter that says they'd like to see more from you is a good sign. I intend to take it that way.
In other news, didn't get a lot of words in today. Enough to meet my MDA (minimum daily allowance), but not my goal of 1250. But there will be days like that. On the other hand, I sat down and wrote out my writing dreams for ten and five years ("dreams" because they're not entirely within my control; i.e., getting publishing isn't only up to me, but submitting short stories and novels to publishers is), as well as my goals for the year, the coming month and each week.
And just to put myself on the spot: My goal for the year (i.e., by end of April 2010, since I began in earnest this month) is to have 50 stories in circulation. Which means at least 50 stories written over the next year, or about one per week. My goal for June is to get four stories written and circulating. Also a story this week and another next week.
It's entirely possible that I'll miss that goal a number of times. I'm going to try very hard to make it every week, but there's no guarantee. If do miss a week now and then, that doesn't mean I've failed entirely. It means, at worst, that I didn't make my goal that week. Nothing more. And on the following week, I have to sit down and start over--just as I would if I'd made it.
I may or may not start on a novel in the next few months. That was my intent (though not a formal goal) initially, but I think that sticking to short stories at first may be a better idea. Steven Barnes, another writers whose advice I strongly consider, says you can learn more from writing a lot of short stories at first than from jumping into a novel; a short story has everything a novel has except length, and you get a lot more practice doing a bunch of stories than just one or two or four.
I think there's something to that. So my official goal is to keep churning out short stories. I may eventually try to start writing a novel as well, but...not immediately.
In still other other news, I'm finding myself less inclined to do a lot of netsurfing or get involved in my online games the last couple of weeks. Even if I don't feel like I've written a lot, clearly I'm using up a lot of my creativity in the process. I don't want to give them up entirely, but I'm clearly not going to be as invested in them as I once was now that I'm focusing my efforts on something else.
Words Written Today: 668
Words Written YTD (since May 1): 14,649
Streak (500+ words/day): 9 Days
Stories in Circulation: 4
Stories Rejected: 1
Stories Accepted: 0
Rumor has it that any rejection letter that says they'd like to see more from you is a good sign. I intend to take it that way.
In other news, didn't get a lot of words in today. Enough to meet my MDA (minimum daily allowance), but not my goal of 1250. But there will be days like that. On the other hand, I sat down and wrote out my writing dreams for ten and five years ("dreams" because they're not entirely within my control; i.e., getting publishing isn't only up to me, but submitting short stories and novels to publishers is), as well as my goals for the year, the coming month and each week.
And just to put myself on the spot: My goal for the year (i.e., by end of April 2010, since I began in earnest this month) is to have 50 stories in circulation. Which means at least 50 stories written over the next year, or about one per week. My goal for June is to get four stories written and circulating. Also a story this week and another next week.
It's entirely possible that I'll miss that goal a number of times. I'm going to try very hard to make it every week, but there's no guarantee. If do miss a week now and then, that doesn't mean I've failed entirely. It means, at worst, that I didn't make my goal that week. Nothing more. And on the following week, I have to sit down and start over--just as I would if I'd made it.
I may or may not start on a novel in the next few months. That was my intent (though not a formal goal) initially, but I think that sticking to short stories at first may be a better idea. Steven Barnes, another writers whose advice I strongly consider, says you can learn more from writing a lot of short stories at first than from jumping into a novel; a short story has everything a novel has except length, and you get a lot more practice doing a bunch of stories than just one or two or four.
I think there's something to that. So my official goal is to keep churning out short stories. I may eventually try to start writing a novel as well, but...not immediately.
In still other other news, I'm finding myself less inclined to do a lot of netsurfing or get involved in my online games the last couple of weeks. Even if I don't feel like I've written a lot, clearly I'm using up a lot of my creativity in the process. I don't want to give them up entirely, but I'm clearly not going to be as invested in them as I once was now that I'm focusing my efforts on something else.
Words Written Today: 668
Words Written YTD (since May 1): 14,649
Streak (500+ words/day): 9 Days
Stories in Circulation: 4
Stories Rejected: 1
Stories Accepted: 0
