The New W1S1 High Tea Bar and Lounge (with extra-comfy sofas)

[Tamlyn]

Good luck, @Izz! I guess you start with one goal - enjoy the writing - and then once you're enjoying it again, move on to the actually finish the writing goal.

I always enjoy writing to prompts, but with Secret Solstice ongoing, I have plenty at the moment. Maybe in future! (Have you ever taken part in Secret Solstice?)

 

[Izz]

(Have you ever taken part in Secret Solstice?)

No, I haven't. Maybe in future

 

[Izz]

So I have a W2 for the month, and not the story I thought I had a shot at finishing the first draft of this week. Idea I had yesterday, and last night, 1700 words later, I had a story to go with the idea

 

[soapdish]

I tried writing to several prompts this month and failed miserably! Normally I do very well with prompts. Well, normally, like…a decade ago

I think I need to accept that there is no normal for me now. Other than abnormal.

No new stories written as I had hoped. Bare bones of outlines that I’m not even terribly excited about, though.

So I ended up going back to R1S1 (revise 1, sub 1) at the very last minute. Like, started yesterday and finished a couple hours ago.

But then I kinda flubbed the S1 part because the last day you could sub to this particular anthology was today, which I knew.

But what I did NOT know was that they didn’t put their submissions email (or any email) on their website. So you have to fill out the “contact form” requesting they send you the submissions email before you can even send it.

If I had read THAT earlier, I would have requested it earlier. But now I kinda think it’s unlikely they’ll check their contact form requests today and get back to me in time.

So technically I haven’t done my S1 for February yet, but I’ll make up for it by doing several tomorrow. I’ve got a handful itching to go out the door. I’m just too exhausted for today to do any more.

And then I’ll see if any new stories form in March.

I kinda wonder if part of my problem is that my interest in short form fiction is waning and maybe I need to get back to novel writing instead. Haven’t made up my mind yet.

 

[Izz]

I kinda wonder if part of my problem is that my interest in short form fiction is waning and maybe I need to get back to novel writing instead. Haven’t made up my mind yet.

That could well be a contributing factor

 

[Tamlyn]

March! I was going to say April, but I haven't stolen a month, promise.

I actually ended up managing to finish my edits and my story draft last month (I had a question mark originally. No, I definitely did, even if the draft is a mess). Edits I typed up before work one day, then on Friday, during break, I banged out the last words I needed for the story. And got a quick why not sub off as well. So I'm pleased. I'll probably be less pleased when I get the rejection and wonder why I bothered

@soapdish - yeah, lack of interest definitely would not help. Glad you got your story revised though.

 

[gettingby]

Got a rejection and made a new submission right away.

 

[Izz]

hmm - having some weird posting issues right now, but let's see if this works:

@Tamlyn Very nice!

@gettingby That's the way to do it. Don't let the story gather dust or doubts!

I'm partway through a story started last week. Plus have a story started last month to finish, along with the 2 stories started in January that aren't done yet (and at least one from last year that I want to keep working on). I've got enough going on that I've gone and started a trello board to make sure I don't lose track of any of them...

I've also come to a semi-realization that I quite like having lots of projects going at once, even if that risks some slipping through the cracks. The last couple years I've been really focused on working on one thing at once (and then if something comes up, setting that one thing aside to work on the new one thing), because working on too many ideas is overwhelming, etc. But actually, maybe it's not. Heh - i feel like the first part of this year has been filled with lots of half-discoveries about my creative process. Maybe all these halves will fuse together into a whole at some point...

 

[gettingby]

Two more rejections came at me today. Going to make a few more submissions this week. I've been slipping when it comes to submitting this year. I find it helps to have as much as I can out there. Of course, more submissions means more rejections, but I'm trying.

 

[Izz]

Two more rejections came at me today. Going to make a few more submissions this week. I've been slipping when it comes to submitting this year. I find it helps to have as much as I can out there. Of course, more submissions means more rejections, but I'm trying.

Keep at it. I'm sure you'll have a whole lot of sales very soon!!

Last month's W2 is about to become this month's S1, meaning i will have 3 stories out in the wilds. That's the most I've had out at once for years

 

[gettingby]

Rejected by The Stinging Fly after about for months. Just a stupid form. I wanted this one. I mean I want all of them. I get none of them. This submission game is getting to me. I think it's because I don't have that many submissions out. Probably about a dozen or so. But then a handful of rejections can really cut that down. And I've got more submissions that are expecting responses any day.

I'm going to try to send out five more before the end of the weekend and hopefully finish a new story to add to the mix.

I like the idea of writing a new story every month, but just one submission a month isn't going to get me anywhere. I need to make many, many more submissions to sell a story. Like an insane amount of submissions that could all become rejections, but I'll have a better chance if I can hit several markets at once.

I just want to make one or two good sales for the year. Writing 12 new stories is going to help, but I probably need to make 100 submissions to give them a real chance of making it.

 

[gettingby]

Okay, I did it. I made five new submissions this day. I had originally thought to give myself a few day, but what was I waiting for? I hope I do it again soon. I will.

 

[Izz]

I like the idea of writing a new story every month, but just one submission a month isn't going to get me anywhere. I need to make many, many more submissions to sell a story. Like an insane amount of submissions that could all become rejections, but I'll have a better chance if I can hit several markets at once.

To clarify, the goal for W1S1 isn't to make only 1 submission total per month, but to submit 1 new story for the first time every month

You might end up subbing that story to several places across a month and, together, with all the other stories you have out and are resubmitting as they get rejected, you'll probably rack up sub numbers pretty quickly.

 

[gettingby]

Thanks, @Izz. That's what I was thinking, but I still don't feel like I'm submitting enough. And I'm not sure I have as many stories on my roster as I should. I'm kind of feeling like a slacker with that. My plan is to stay in this weekend and get my new story ready for submission. Truth is, I didn't have any plans, anyway. But I'm really into this story. I have a bit of a problem knowing when exactly to call a story done and put it on submission. I mean, I do it. I think I'm making it harder than it needs to be. I haven't always had this problem. Not sure what's up with that.

 

[Tamlyn]

It's just some of us are being particularly... unprolific, so sometimes we're lucky to get even just a single story submitted in a month, whether for the first time or the twelfth.

(and by we, I mean me. Just me. I'm the slacker. Also injured or something but, you know, even when I didn't have that excuse, writing is hard)

For those of us in the spec fic arena, in case anyone missed it, Uncanny is opening to flash at the end of the month (24th to 28th).

 

[gettingby]

How many drafts do you guys typically do for your short stories before you feel they are ready to submit? I think part of my problem is that every time I give a story another pass I always find ways to improve it. This could go on forever.

 

[AnnieColleen]

(and by we, I mean me. Just me. I'm the slacker. Also injured or something but, you know, even when I didn't have that excuse, writing is hard)

Nope, not just you.

 

[Izz]

How many drafts do you guys typically do for your short stories before you feel they are ready to submit? I think part of my problem is that every time I give a story another pass I always find ways to improve it. This could go on forever.

Depends on the story. Which is annoyingly vague, i know, but the truth.

But yes, at some point you do have to pull up and say the story is done.

Speaking of stories, the one I'm working on the most this month is kinda semi-hard SF (or maybe semi-soft, depending on how you look at it ). Which has been fun, except that I keep realizing little things aren't quite right. And there's a constant background paranoia that maybe there are a lot of other things that also aren't right but I'm not science enough to realize. It's been slow going

 

[Tamlyn]

An old teacher of mine used to put it as when you're rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic, it's time to stop.

Of course, figuring out when you're just rearranging and when you're actually fixing a seating problem is the trouble...

 

[gettingby]

I was just rejected again. This time it was from a literary journal that doesn't pay. The Idaho Review. The thing is I love The Idaho Review. I think they're a great literary journal, and I would love to get something in their pages. I've tried many times, and failed. They are still a great journal, and I will try again.

I seem to have already selected the places I want to publish from big name places that pay also pay big to smaller university-run outlets that might not pay at all. But I do pretty much know where I want to publish. I would guess it's around 50 places. I don't go looking for new markets, but if I read something from or about a place I'm not familiar with, I will look into it. But, basically, I don't want to publish anywhere that has zero name recognition. Does anyone else feel that way?

For genre, I just stick to the popular ones. I tried looking for others, but I wasn't really impressed with a lot of what I was finding, and it was hard to tell if they came with any clout. So, I'm only submitting my genre work to the places that are well-known in the industry. I mean, that's what I want in a credit. And those places have the most reach with readership on top of it. Win-win, the way I see it. If I ever break into these markets.

Do you guys know where you want to publish or do you actively look for and evaluate publications you might have never heard of before? How far does your search go when trying to find places to publish?

I'm a little sad because I have what I thought was a great story, but I feel like I've run out of places to submit. This has happened to me before. Good thing we're always writing new stories around here.