I recently broke a land speed record for the short story process when my story "Life with Riley" was accepted in "Bleed my Heart Romantic", a short story anthology that will be coming out this year.
I queried the editor and asked her if there were still openings in her anthology, and if there was anything she wasn't seeing that she wanted to see printed in her book. She promptly told me something along the lines of too much porn and erotica, and not enough disturbing horror (this anthology's theme is love gone wrong).
I sat down abd decided within about ten minutes of reading her email that I would like to try a story about an impossible love affair. I came up with the idea that since people with multiple personality disorders have distinctive personalities inside their minds (each with a different facet for a different type of situation), It might be a neat idea to have two of these personalities fall in love with each other.
Of course, to make things even more chaotic, a picked a "rage" personality type and a "passive" personality type, to mimick a recognizable male/female pattern (even though they were both female).
I wrote the story (about 2500 words) in just over an hour. Then, still euphoric from a really great writing session (I'm sure you all get that feeling when you're writing something you think is great) I did a quick spell check, gave it the once over, and was sending it off to the editor before I even realised what I was doing.
I have to say that normally I am a religious 3rd or 4th draft man. I ALWAYS go back and double check things, clean stuff up, nip and tuck...and I have a formula for doing it that works well for me (eg. first pass spelling and grammar, second pass reinforcing the theme, etc...)
So I spent All day thinking I'd made this huge mistake by sending off unfinished copy, and cursing myself for being careless.
The next morning, I checked my email...and there it was. not only a glowing acceptance, but a bit of gushing about the story itself.
The whole process took about 12 hours or so, I believe, a definite record for myself.
B.