The W1S1 Check-in and Chill Lounge and Bar

I heard back from two betas tonight. On two separate stories. I'm jazzed to finally be able to make some progress on them both again. All fixable problems. I'm not touching them tonight, though.

But this weekend--er...wait, I have to finish my write1 this weekend...um...next week--look out! I'm going to attack those two stories like nobody's business.

Well, poo.

I just found out that the story I sent to DSF a couple of days ago never reached them.
The connection seemed to stall a bit when I was sending it, and when I didn't get an acknowledgement email I was pretty sure something had gone wrong.

But they were very quick getting back to me to answer my query, so that was good of them.

I'll have to try again.
Fingers crossed it goes right this time!

Emptyeye said:

Not much in the way of content, but I did get the piece I intend to submit to 10Flash Quarterly into a proper manuscript format. I used this guide, because that's what 10Flash linked to. As a bonus, I now have something of a template to use for future stories.

Click to expand...

I'm starting to come to my own conclusion (whether it be right or wrong) that standard manuscript form is just kind of standard. It varies a little bit here and there, I've noticed.

Which really worries me for some obscure reason.

4200 words into "The Patient Prince," my new fantasy short. For whatever reason, I'm having absolutely no problem putting this one down on (proverbial) paper. I even have a title, which is even more unusual for me. Typically I have to take a day or so, and a couple of re-reads, to get something I'm willing to stomach long enough to send it out. But this one feels right.

Wrote two flash pieces the last two days. One I experimented with using 2nd-person - I know, I know, no one likes 2nd-person but gotta give the underdog PoV a chance.

defcon6000 said:

Wrote two flash pieces the last two days. One I experimented with using 2nd-person - I know, I know, no one likes 2nd-person but gotta give the underdog PoV a chance.

Click to expand...

There's nothing wrong with using 2nd person or other unorthodox storytelling, so long as you do it well. My first pro sale is a story told as a plural first person narrative, and in present tense to boot! I'm thinking the unusual delivery helped me make the sale by allowing the story to stand out among all the other slush.

alexshvartsman said:

I'm thinking the unusual delivery helped me make the sale by allowing the story to stand out among all the other slush.

Click to expand...

*repeats to self over and over and over*

I sure hope so, because I've got two in second person right now.

Lesse...today, a little more progress on the Write1 for the month. I'm near the end, just got to...Get. It. Out.

Haven't written anything short for the last couple days (working on the novel instead) but I have a new idea that I might try to tackle today. I love getting ideas that I don't hate for short stories.

Go Suzanne! And its only 4k words which is, like, flash fiction for you

I've made some progress on my WIP this morning, which currently stands at about 1500 words and is nearing completion. I need to write just two more smallish scenes so it will end up at around 2k. Problem is, I have very little faith in this ending up being a publishable story. Trying to figure out if I should listen to my instincts and move on, or stick to my guns and finish/polish up this potential dud anyway just in case it's better than I'm giving it credit for?

Well, this is annoying.

In trying to touch up my submission for 10flash, I noticed that neither converting from .odt to either .rtf nor .doc works very well (.doc overwrites my header with the one from the first page, and .rtf just completely borks the formatting). Trying to correct and then re-save in the format in question doesn't work either.

Anyone here use OpenOffice and have any experience with this? What do you do besides "Just use Office"?

I had the same problem....I had to convert it to word and slog through editing it to work it back into its original shape. Pain.

Hooray for me! I wrote words today! In a story!

I'm going on a retreat in August, so I need to hit my deadlines early.

Finished up packing up my house today, making it all nice and clean for the new tenants. All the cleaning and packing has left me feeling mentally drained, but I know that once I start writing again I'll feel better. Tomorrow I go visit my mom's family in Newfoundland, so I plan to squirrel away some hours there to write.

Okay, I had to kind of hack it together, but I think I've got the .doc to stay in a more-or-less proper manuscript format. Now to write a short cover letter and send it off!

So, after betaing Pixie Dust again the consensus is that it needs a rewrite. My fault for trying to flesh out a self-contained story with more content. Made for two stories smashed into one. Good news is that even though the MC is a bit of a prick he's still likeable.

In a major slump this week though. At least as far as writing new material. I have several scenes roughed out in my head but haven't had time to sit down and actually write. Boo.

I do, however, now have a gallon and a half of peach preserves and three quarts of ginger peach butter. Maybe it's time to make biscuits.

And all of the subs (since the Twit fic acceptances early in the week) are crickets.

And I have a job interview on Monday. Looks cool. Would be great to have some income again instead of having to lean on poor Mr. Aggy who works harder than any normal human should have to.

Fingers crossed that it goes well. I have very little interview experience and it's been... a while since the last one.

Ah, well. Better get home to get dinner and try to get some words on the page.

I've discovered a surprising recipe for extended writing sessions: two hours of sleep and international, cross-continent plane rides. Perhaps because I was too tired to think critically, I wrote six thousand words of the hopefully-not-a-novel in what was, save for one connection, a straight sitting. I don't know if any of it's coherent (it's probably not a good sing that I couldn't focus well enough to really read when I tried that...), but I have a much better idea of the overall story/structure now. It'll need a lot of revision, and I'm still not sure I can do it in under ten or so thousand words, but I feel less like I'm stabbing blindly in the dark.

Aggy -

2 stories out of one could be good.

Peaches are always most excellent. (I'm waiting for colorado ones to ripen)

Smash the crickets and kick butt on the interview!

Nathaniel Katz said:

Perhaps because I was too tired to think critically, I wrote six thousand words of the hopefully-not-a-novel in what was, save for one connection, a straight sitting.

Click to expand...

That is AWESOME.

I don't know if any of it's coherent (it's probably not a good sing that I couldn't focus well enough to really read when I tried that...), but I have a much better idea of the overall story/structure now. It'll need a lot of revision, and I'm still not sure I can do it in under ten or so thousand words, but I feel less like I'm stabbing blindly in the dark.

Click to expand...

Man, I love those sessions. I know what you mean, though. About whether it's coherent. But still...YAY for getting it all out.


As for me, I am reporting in to say...I HAVE AN ENDING!!! My MC had to die to get what she wanted, but...meh. Sacrifices, right?

Well, sent off my story to 10Flash. I think that means I win for this month, having both written and submitted that story in July.

Anyone planning to submit to Wily Writers: Halloween Horror (due 07/31)?

Emptyeye said:

Well, this is annoying.

In trying to touch up my submission for 10flash, I noticed that neither converting from .odt to either .rtf nor .doc works very well (.doc overwrites my header with the one from the first page, and .rtf just completely borks the formatting). Trying to correct and then re-save in the format in question doesn't work either.

Anyone here use OpenOffice and have any experience with this? What do you do besides "Just use Office"?

Click to expand...

I had this recently.
It's a nightmare.
I've got office now. Some dodgy knock off, but it works.

Before that, what I was doing was taking my OO odt, and opening it in AbiWord. Then I would check it over and save as doc or rtf.
AbiWord saves both OK.

The one thing you can't do, or at least the thing I could never do, is have a different header on the first page.
So my first page always had a header too.

Still, it doesn't eff it all up like OO does.

You could use Abi all the time, I suppose. But I never liked it much.
It's free, and a small download. Try it.

Do not trust anything in OO saved as anything but odt. It effs it up randomly.
rtfs are worst, but it sometimes does docs too.

Good luck. It's a huge pain in the arse.