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Sunday Night
Jun. 13th, 2010 11:02 pmI've got one story printed up and sealed in a manila envelope with a cover letter and SASE, ready to be dropped in the mail tomorrow morning. That's good--one more story in the mail. What's not so good is that I'd hoped to have several ready to go this week, and that didn't happen.
I also suspected it wouldn't happen. While I'd hoped to write and/or finish three or four stories this week, I also knew that wasn't really very likely. It may be that Ray Bradbury can write a story in a day, but I can't--not yet, anyhow, and not consistently even if I do succeed occasionally. So it was always a long shot. But I intend to keep trying; the only way to develop a muscle is to exercise it, so trying to write a complete story quickly and make it salable at the same time is to try.
One story, which had been rejected by the market I wrote it for, will need rewriting before I can submit it elsewhere. It's too short for most of the other markets I might submit it to, so I'll need to lengthen it. Given other changes I would like to make to it, I think a complete redrafting--throwing away the existing manuscript and writing the story anew from scratch--is probably the best approach.
Another story is in limbo at the moment. I have doubt about it--and not just my usual doubts. Real, professional doubts. I'm not sure there's really a story there. It's more of a (to use fanfic terms) PWP ("Plot? What plot?") fic. It was fun to write, but I don't think it really constitutes a salable story. Which is not to say I won't send it out in the end, but it's not a priority.
I've also been reading some useful advice on writing of late, and I want to practice some of what I've learned. So this week I intend to try to write (finish and mail off) two stories. I plan to engage in what Dean Wesley Smith has called '"focused practice"--where you make a point of trying to master a particular skill or technique in a given story. Writing cliffhangers, say. Or learning to write vivid descriptions. So I'm going to use the two stories I work on this week to practice some specific advice.
We'll see how it goes. Next week I'll start banging my Starship Repo Man manuscript into shape for My Lovely And Talented Wife (and first reader) to look at. Once she's had a chance to tell me what she thinks, and I've had time to fix any problems she points out to me, I'll be ready to send it out.
Stories in Circulation: 12 <---another one just went out.
Rejections: 40
Stories Accepted: SEVEN
Stories to Resubmit: 0
Novel Queries: 1 Novel, 4 queries out
Novel Rejections: 6
I also suspected it wouldn't happen. While I'd hoped to write and/or finish three or four stories this week, I also knew that wasn't really very likely. It may be that Ray Bradbury can write a story in a day, but I can't--not yet, anyhow, and not consistently even if I do succeed occasionally. So it was always a long shot. But I intend to keep trying; the only way to develop a muscle is to exercise it, so trying to write a complete story quickly and make it salable at the same time is to try.
One story, which had been rejected by the market I wrote it for, will need rewriting before I can submit it elsewhere. It's too short for most of the other markets I might submit it to, so I'll need to lengthen it. Given other changes I would like to make to it, I think a complete redrafting--throwing away the existing manuscript and writing the story anew from scratch--is probably the best approach.
Another story is in limbo at the moment. I have doubt about it--and not just my usual doubts. Real, professional doubts. I'm not sure there's really a story there. It's more of a (to use fanfic terms) PWP ("Plot? What plot?") fic. It was fun to write, but I don't think it really constitutes a salable story. Which is not to say I won't send it out in the end, but it's not a priority.
I've also been reading some useful advice on writing of late, and I want to practice some of what I've learned. So this week I intend to try to write (finish and mail off) two stories. I plan to engage in what Dean Wesley Smith has called '"focused practice"--where you make a point of trying to master a particular skill or technique in a given story. Writing cliffhangers, say. Or learning to write vivid descriptions. So I'm going to use the two stories I work on this week to practice some specific advice.
We'll see how it goes. Next week I'll start banging my Starship Repo Man manuscript into shape for My Lovely And Talented Wife (and first reader) to look at. Once she's had a chance to tell me what she thinks, and I've had time to fix any problems she points out to me, I'll be ready to send it out.
Stories in Circulation: 12 <---another one just went out.
Rejections: 40
Stories Accepted: SEVEN
Stories to Resubmit: 0
Novel Queries: 1 Novel, 4 queries out
Novel Rejections: 6