The W1S1 Check-in and Chill Lounge and Bar

zanzjan said:

You know at night when it's completely dark and quiet and still, and nothing is moving at all, and the crickets come out in force? That, except it's the submission that's quiet and still.

-Suzanne

Click to expand...

Oh!

Thanks

My subs are dwindling. I'm spending more time rewriting, because I think this is what I need to focus on right now. I'm penning my second story for the month, and have 3 resubs, so I'm doing good for the Ray Lite.

I've been flirting with the idea of sending my "best" story to Writer's of the Future, but I'm a little afraid of finding out where I'll fit into the stack, if at all.

No griping from you for 2 weeks, Asimov's!

zanzjan said:

One story submitted and still waiting, one acceptance, one old story still keepin' the crickets entertained at 345 days out.

Not having much forward momentum with any of my works in progress right now and it's frustrating the heck out of me. )-:

-Suzanne

Click to expand...

Three stories out. I expect nothing but silence on two of them for weeks still, if not months. The third? Ack. I am not thinking about the third, la la la la la.

On the bright side, today I finished the first completely fresh story in a while. No idea what I will do with it. I may have written it just for myself.

Out of curiosity, how many of you send out everything you write? I know there is the school of thought that a writer should give every piece a chance. I often find it difficult to tell where common sense ends and perfectionism begins.

SmallThing said:

Out of curiosity, how many of you send out everything you write? I know there is the school of thought that a writer should give every piece a chance. I often find it difficult to tell where common sense ends and perfectionism begins.

Click to expand...

I don't send out everything I write. Sometimes the story's just too flawed to even bother fixing, and sometimes I think I could fix it, but I'd rather write something that's better to begin with. But I'm still learning.

Before this year, I'd really only written one complete short story in 2010 and one complete short story in 2009, and neither would be worth sending out, or even revising though I did learn quite a bit from both. I'm not counting flash stories I wrote in this total because most flash stuff I write ends up pretty nonsensical, and though I might try to fix weaknesses in the stories for revision practice, I don't take them very seriously... I suppose here I should add that by 'flash stuff' I mean things I wrote to a prompt from start to finish in one sitting.

I've been far more committed to writing on a regular basis this year (rather than writing something, and finding myself discouraged by it, and then taking long breaks). I'm hoping, as I progress, I'll get to the point where it will make sense to give every story its chance.

My April stats so far:

3 new stories written/submitted
6 submissions made total (including the 3 new stories)
11 stories total on submission
2 rejections in April
1 story published (accepted in March)

Zero acceptances so far this month, but according to Duotrope my story is currently the longest-held at One Buck Horror (at 12 days) and they've been steadily rejecting stuff at 3-6 day mark, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

A few other things coming up against the "average response time" in the next week, to silence the crickets.

SmallThing said:

Out of curiosity, how many of you send out everything you write? I know there is the school of thought that a writer should give every piece a chance. I often find it difficult to tell where common sense ends and perfectionism begins.

Click to expand...

I've sent out about 75% of the stories I've finished. Before W1S1, my ratio was more like 50%. Among other things, W1S1 has taught me not to self-reject as easily. I can think of at least two stories I probably wouldn't have submitted without W1S1 which already sold.

SmallThing said:

Three stories out. I expect nothing but silence on two of them for weeks still, if not months. The third? Ack. I am not thinking about the third, la la la la la.

On the bright side, today I finished the first completely fresh story in a while. No idea what I will do with it. I may have written it just for myself.

Out of curiosity, how many of you send out everything you write? I know there is the school of thought that a writer should give every piece a chance. I often find it difficult to tell where common sense ends and perfectionism begins.

Click to expand...

If a story is hopeless, I can't finish it. If I finished it, I will revise it and give it a chance. It's always been like this for me, but I believe it's individual.

However, I used to retire stories. In 2008-9, I retired five stories, and I have worked a lot on all of them (one won a HM from WotF). I have no doubt some would have sold somewhere, and I also am sure that retiring them was the absolute right thing to do. In 2010-11, I revised two of these stories and sent them out. They were much better after revisions, and one sold.

I haven't retired anything in 2010-11. This is a sign of my progress as a writer; I feel that I consistently write better now than I did when I started.

SmallThing said:

Out of curiosity, how many of you send out everything you write? I know there is the school of thought that a writer should give every piece a chance. I often find it difficult to tell where common sense ends and perfectionism begins.

Click to expand...

I send out about 75% of what I write.

After this year of W1S1, I should have a better sense of how well that works out for me!

Ack, it sounds like you guys are doing math in here...


Wait, Matt's flirting with his best story. That's a little better.

I've had a horrible month. The worst in a very long time. I am still optimistic that I'll get one of the two stories I outlined earlier this month done. But I am expecting it to be VERY rough around the edges. And short.

I'm trying to send out everything I have. After all, all the editor can do is say no, and I know that I'm not the best judge of my work. Sometimes, though, I do let pieces linger for a bit and muse on how to make them less... disappointing.

I haven't gotten nearly as much writing done this week/last as I wanted to. I finished a few twitter pieces and one flash, but I think the flash's pretty weak. Still some time, though.

My story is about to get crittered (via Critters). We'll see if she's as attractive after as before.

My problem is that I've submitted so many pieces, and they've each received a rejection. In looking at them, I don't want to send them out without revising them (esp. in light of my recent "revolution" in my approach to writing). So I have a growing log of revisions to look at.

As for horrible months, to paraphrase the Bhagavad Gita:

No effort on the path is ever wasted.

soapdish said:

Wait, Matt's flirting with his best story. That's a little better.

I've had a horrible month. The worst in a very long time. I am still optimistic that I'll get one of the two stories I outlined earlier this month done. But I am expecting it to be VERY rough around the edges. And short.

Click to expand...

Actually, now I'm starting to wonder about the revision: new story ratio.

I wonder if the time I spend revising might be better spent on a new story. It is becoming easy to see the difference between my MANY ideas vs. SOME good ideas vs. my RARE really good ideas (relatively speaking).

I got some actual words written today, so this week is off to a good start. I've been avoiding coming in here for the last few weeks out of guilt for not getting much writing done. Hopefully that lull is over!

Nicole

Thanks to everyone for that stats on what you send out. I tend to give most everything a thumbs down. My husband then convinces me to send maybe half the stuff out. I'm trying to get better at sorting it out for myself.

soapdish said:

I've had a horrible month. The worst in a very long time. I am still optimistic that I'll get one of the two stories I outlined earlier this month done. But I am expecting it to be VERY rough around the edges. And short.

Click to expand...

Short and rough around the edges is okay.

Gray Rose said:

I haven't retired anything in 2010-11. This is a sign of my progress as a writer; I feel that I consistently write better now than I did when I started.

Click to expand...

Izz said:

Well, it would appear i am still unable to concentrate on anything in particular. I'm like a bee with attention deficit disorder, flitting from one flowery idea to another, but only sampling the pollen of each.

Right now, my flitting has taken me back to a novel-length idea i fiddled with briefly in 2009, and has me wondering if i can write it and sell it as a series of short stories. It's a cross between 'Around the World in Eighty Days' and 'Gulliver's Travels,'but set in spaaaace.

It was a fun idea when i had it, and it's just as fun now. Just have to force myself to focus.

Click to expand...

You must focus, Izz.

Or else.

MattJ said:

Actually, now I'm starting to wonder about the revision: new story ratio.

I wonder if the time I spend revising might be better spent on a new story. It is becoming easy to see the difference between my MANY ideas vs. SOME good ideas vs. my RARE really good ideas (relatively speaking).

Click to expand...

I think it depends on where you are with writing and what your current goals are.

I had a period of time when revising heavily was useful. I started out revising a novel, and worked on it for a long time, sort of like taking an engine apart to see all the pieces and figuring out what each one does before trying to put them back together. That was good, but it also taught me that over-revising left me with a large pile of words and not much else.

These days I try to stick to minimal revision, for one simple reason. I've found that the easiest thing for me to destroy in a short story is voice. Too much tinkering and the flow is gone.

So I write the whole thing as quickly as possible, give it one editing pass and decide whether there are any significant problems, get a quick read from someone else, and then make a decision on whether the structure is sound or not. If it isn't, it goes into the folder of things to play with when I'm bored.

Which means that I spend little time revising. But only because it fits with how I write and what I'm trying to write currently. It works less well when I have something very complicated I'm trying to convey, and it does mean I have a few very good ideas languishing because I felt like I was overworking their stories.

It's an imperfect science for me.

Heya, folks.

Internet at the house has been out. Since I usually "share" a wireless signal with a neighbor I can't exactly complain. (Or call the ISP and ask them to fix the problem.)

But I've gotten a fair amount written because I haven't been able to fark around on the intertubes. Now if I can just get a few things edited and subbed I'll be even happier.

And I usually send most everything I write off eventually. But sometimes it takes years to revise something to the point where I don't feel embarrassed by it. (Recently this hasn't been as much of an issue. Hooray for improvement.) And I work on novels a lot which take much longer to finish and polish out of the "shiny new turd" stage.

Anywho. I have to write like mad to catch up on my Script Frenzy pages.

Later!

SmallThing said:

Out of curiosity, how many of you send out everything you write?

Click to expand...

I'm about to hit 100%--11 out of 12 of my revised, completed short works are currently out on submission, the remaining one waiting to go through another revision (probably within a day or so).

But then again, I only have twelve completed short pieces (not counting of course, the 6 or so sort-of 'finished' messy first drafts of things that still don't know what they are yet.)

I remember reading years ago Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut. He said there are two main writing camps: swoopers and bashers. The swoopers put words on the page, then go back and revise, revise, revise. The bashers produce very slowly, but when they're done, they're done.

Personally, I'm a swooper. When I get going, I can put words on paper like nobody's business. But a lot of those words need help, the images need to be pushed, the tiny details need to be woven into the story.

SmallThing said:

I think it depends on where you are with writing and what your current goals are.

Click to expand...

MattJ said:

I wonder if the time I spend revising might be better spent on a new story. It is becoming easy to see the difference between my MANY ideas vs. SOME good ideas vs. my RARE really good ideas (relatively speaking).

Click to expand...

Yeah, I am right there with you. I have been wondering this myself. W1S1 has me writing more stories than ever before, yet there are only a couple I think could really go somewhere. The rest...meh, I don't know. But there is something salvageable from even the worst ones. Whether it be a concept, a character, even just a line or two. I don't feel too much pressure to rewrite them, I'll just harvest them for what I want later. And if I get back to doing a rewrite on them some day, then fine. If not, then that's OK too.

NicoleMD said:

I got some actual words written today, so this week is off to a good start.

Click to expand...

YAY! Words are GREAT!

SmallThing said:

Short and rough around the edges is okay.

Click to expand...

Thanks. That's what I ended up with for this month. So far, at least. I messed around with some twitter length fiction, but wasn't happy with any of it. I worked with two of the stories I outlined at the beginning of the month, and actually finished one today.

It was a weird way to do it, but not uncommon for me, I suppose. I wrote it a little at a time over the course of the day. I just kept leaning over my desk while I was working and scribbling in my journal...until it was done. It's all handwritten, but I'm guessing it's around 700 words. I might even get to a round of edits by the end of the month!

MattJ said:

He said there are two main writing camps: swoopers and bashers. The swoopers put words on the page, then go back and revise, revise, revise. The bashers produce very slowly, but when they're done, they're done.

Click to expand...

Huh. I think I'm a swooper. I like that. I think I'll change my user title.

Niiiice, Izz. What books? Fiction or non-fiction?

Wait, were they for you? It's Scholastic Book season here again, I'm buying some books tonight too. Not for me though. Little one is tearing through the Harry Potter series like nobody's business. I keep trying to tell him about a little thing called the LIBRARY. But he refuses to wait for things and the stuff he wants is usually checked out for eons before he'd get it. Ah, well. At least he's reading.