Lit Fic Check-In?

zclesa

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There are several AWers from outside the US that have US agents, so I think that may have changed since you last researched.

As for innovative/samey in the context of guidelines, without a mss to look at, there's no way to see what is/is not working, or what is/is not too far out there to get an offer from an agent, interest from an editor, and then pass an acquisitions board.

Best of luck with your shorts--and much empathy on the migraine, they can stop my world for days. :)

Thanks, ap. After a marathon sleep, my migraine has lessened. I will focus on the shorts for now, to see what I can get away with! ;)
 

Elle.

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I do think there's some difference in the US vs UK markets when approaching agents. For both yes, it's approaching the right agents--we hope, oh how I wish my crystal ball wasn't so cloudy. :cry:But I think the synopsis is less important when approaching agents in the US. The majority don't ask for one in the US until/unless they're asking for the full, and even then many don't. Here it's the query and the opening pages. It's funny, sometimes I think my work would hold more appeal for UK agents based on who I see taking/publishing what, but I can't write a decent synopsis, so ultimately that's just a grass is greener thing. :Shrug:

I agree since joining this forums I have noticed the differences between the US and the UK. Especially the fact that the US tends to go with the concept/pitch first and then request some pages, whereas in the UK the concept and the writing seem to have an equal importance as all agents either request for 3 chapters or 10,000 words.

I think I prefer the UK system as I think my strong point is more in the actual writing then the pitch. I recently got to see the pitch an agent create when submitting to editors and dear god made my attempts at pitching so clunky!

Thanks, ap. After a marathon sleep, my migraine has lessened. I will focus on the shorts for now, to see what I can get away with! ;)

Good luck with your short stories, and happy to hear your migraine has lessened :)
 

Chris P

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Happy New Year, everyone! Have we all made our resolutions? How many have we broken so far? :)

I've committed not only to the Reading Challenge but also the Short Story reading challenge, in addition to working on my current project, so I might be in for a busy year.

I've gotten about 35K words down of a first draft, with at least one more subplot to intoduce, a couple existing ones to develop, but I'm worried I've done all the easy stuff and will hit the wall soon. The final element focuses on Hispanic immigrants to the Midwest, and they were just beginning to arrive in large numbers when I left for the Deep South. Therefore, I have little experience with that community and will need to do a lot of research. Fortunately there are a lot of Latinos where I live, so that's a great resource. A sensitivity reader will be a must for this one, for sure.
 

Lakey

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Hello Chris and everyone.

I finished up my year by rereading (for the nth time) the novel that inspired me to write a novel of my own, and came away with more of an ache than ever to achieve in my own novel some sliver of what I experience when I read that book. The timing is good. I am just getting started on a full-draft revision, fixing some plotting and characterization weaknesses of my first draft, and being intentional with every sentence about trying to reach that emotional core. Whatever it is today (mostly a royal mess), it will be a more literary work when I'm done with this revision - a project that I expect will take a year or two.

I'd also like to write more short stories - which is sort of at odds with the revision, as it takes some of my finite writing time and attention, but it's also not at odds, as it focuses my work and makes me a better writer. I have a story out on submission now - with entirely literary ambitions - but when I sent it, just about a year had passed since my last submission, and I'd like to reduce that spacing just a little bit. Eventually it would be nice to submit a story every 3-4 months while still keeping my novel moving forward, but I'm not sure that's realistic. If I can submit just 2 stories this year it will double my rate!

(The root cause, of course, is that my day job is too damn demanding of my time and mental energy. If I can rein that in a bit in 2019, these other ambitions become more accessible.)

:e2coffee:
 

ap123

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Hello! I love that you came back to check in. ��

Wow, Chris, you're committing to a lot this year! Is your story focused on immigration or life in the Midwest in general? Wishing you the best with both your reading and writing goals.

Lakey, it does sound like good timing for you to have reread that novel. Good luck as you start your revisions. :) Your short story submission patterns sound similar to mine--though honestly, if I sub one a year I consider it a good year. I probably write two-three a year, but usually more for me than for subbing purposes.

No resolutions for me, just a general want to finish this WIP, which feels impossible at the moment. I'm somewhere between a third and halfway through, hit a wall about a month ago (probably related to the incessant drilling being done to the exterior of my building) and...blah. I know I'm still missing something structurally necessary, but can't quite figure out what.

I may or may not go back to my dusty blog, sometimes it helps to grease the fiction-writing wheels.
 

Paul Lamb

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I don't write in any clear genre (occasional mild speculative fiction or ambiguous fantasy), so I classify myself as a literary fiction writer. Certainly that's what I choose to read (Russo, Roth, Mudoch, Melville, and so on.) I think we're perhaps less gregarious than writers in other genres. Maybe that's why you're feeling a little out of the main stream.

Gonna visit your blog now.
 

Elle.

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No resolutions for me, just a general want to finish this WIP, which feels impossible at the moment. I'm somewhere between a third and halfway through, hit a wall about a month ago (probably related to the incessant drilling being done to the exterior of my building) and...blah. I know I'm still missing something structurally necessary, but can't quite figure out what.

I may or may not go back to my dusty blog, sometimes it helps to grease the fiction-writing wheels.

How’s your WIP going? Have you made progress or figured out what was missing?
 

Chris P

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Welcome to AW Paul! And thanks for reviving the thread.

As for my WIP, I got about 45k words down by mid-January, then got to the point where I really needed to see how it was all going to come together and started on the second draft, which unfortunately had an issue that required a decision point pretty early on that I haven't resolved yet. Basically, one option would require a couple thousand more words along the same arc to get it where I want it to go, but I think will make for a very long and linear slow burn intro (which is a problem of mine--too long and too slow a burn). Each part is necessary, but the other option will require me to add stuff to break it up in an unrealistic way and will add stuff for the sake of stuff and not story. I haven't yet come up with the third and better way. Oh, and AP123: the story is about midwest life in general, and not particularly focused on the immigrant experience. However, the MC encounters her immigrant neighbors and makes what I hope are naive cultural boo boos (which is where the sensativity reader will come in to make sure I'm not unintentionally stereotypical).
 

ap123

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I don't write in any clear genre (occasional mild speculative fiction or ambiguous fantasy), so I classify myself as a literary fiction writer. Certainly that's what I choose to read (Russo, Roth, Mudoch, Melville, and so on.) I think we're perhaps less gregarious than writers in other genres. Maybe that's why you're feeling a little out of the main stream.

Gonna visit your blog now.

Welcome to AW, Paul :) Lit fic writers are fewer in number on this site, but there are some of us.

How’s your WIP going? Have you made progress or figured out what was missing?

Thanks for asking, Elle. I didn't write anything for months, but recently have been making slow progress again. Did I mention slow? I was just saying to Husband yesterday I think a good portion of why it's gotten so hard is I'm just not feeling funny these days. It's satire, and satire without funny = me writing 500 words and then deleting 450. Sigh.

Welcome to AW Paul! And thanks for reviving the thread.

As for my WIP, I got about 45k words down by mid-January, then got to the point where I really needed to see how it was all going to come together and started on the second draft, which unfortunately had an issue that required a decision point pretty early on that I haven't resolved yet. Basically, one option would require a couple thousand more words along the same arc to get it where I want it to go, but I think will make for a very long and linear slow burn intro (which is a problem of mine--too long and too slow a burn). Each part is necessary, but the other option will require me to add stuff to break it up in an unrealistic way and will add stuff for the sake of stuff and not story. I haven't yet come up with the third and better way. Oh, and AP123: the story is about midwest life in general, and not particularly focused on the immigrant experience. However, the MC encounters her immigrant neighbors and makes what I hope are naive cultural boo boos (which is where the sensativity reader will come in to make sure I'm not unintentionally stereotypical).

Chris, I hope you can figure out the arc you need. Maybe start writing that long slow burn and see how it shakes out? The story sounds very promising. The MC in my story makes a lot of offensive blunders in the things she says, I'm using (trying to use) humor and the responses/reactions of people around her to show critique of her words and actions.
 

Lakey

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Hello everyone. My writing is in a weird superposition of states. I had a nice affirmation of my lit-fic bonafides when a short story of mine was a finalist in a pretty respectable journal’s contest (I crowed about it plenty around here when it happened). It was good to be told yes, you are not delusional to think that you can play on this field. On the other hand, the story still is not published. :/ It’s in another contest now, and has racked up about a dozen rejections from various lit journals.

My writing has been stalled out due to a combination of my day job and some family obligations, both of which are too hard and too exhausting. I don’t have a disciplined mindset right now; I come home and pass out. So the novel, which I hoped would be well into the second draft by now, isn’t moving at all (earlier in the year it was moving backward; I was trying to write new stuff for the second draft and wrote things I had to scrap because they just didn’t work).

I did start a story recently that has some potential, so there’s that. It’s set in the same time period as my novel (the McCarthy era), and hits some of the same themes. What pleases me about it is that the main character is coming alive and she’s rather different from other characters I’ve written, and I’m a little in love with her.

:e2coffee:
 

ap123

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Lakey, life obligations are real and hard and often do get in the way when we want to be writing. I'm hoping for the best for you with that story, I remember you posting about that contest, and hope that affirmation carries you through until it finds a home.

This new story sounds very promising--and it just might get your head/imagination where it needs to be when you're ready to go back to the WIP.
 

Elle.

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Thanks for asking, Elle. I didn't write anything for months, but recently have been making slow progress again. Did I mention slow? I was just saying to Husband yesterday I think a good portion of why it's gotten so hard is I'm just not feeling funny these days. It's satire, and satire without funny = me writing 500 words and then deleting 450. Sigh.

Glad to hear you are writing again, you can't force those things it has to come when it's ready or it's the right time, and slow progress is still better than no progress.

Hello everyone. My writing is in a weird superposition of states. I had a nice affirmation of my lit-fic bonafides when a short story of mine was a finalist in a pretty respectable journal’s contest (I crowed about it plenty around here when it happened). It was good to be told yes, you are not delusional to think that you can play on this field. On the other hand, the story still is not published. :/ It’s in another contest now, and has racked up about a dozen rejections from various lit journals.

Hang in there. I know how disheartening rejections can be, I've been there but all it takes is one. I had a story that had dozen of rejections, then I entered it in a competition and got longlisted but went no further. I kept subbing it and finally last week got an acceptance out of the blue. Sometimes when I am caught in a wave of rejections I feel like I will never have a story published ever again and then after a while it passes. My rejection list is about ten times longer than my acceptance one but that's just how it goes.
 

ap123

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Glad to hear you are writing again, you can't force those things it has to come when it's ready or it's the right time, and slow progress is still better than no progress.



Hang in there. I know how disheartening rejections can be, I've been there but all it takes is one. I had a story that had dozen of rejections, then I entered it in a competition and got longlisted but went no further. I kept subbing it and finally last week got an acceptance out of the blue. Sometimes when I am caught in a wave of rejections I feel like I will never have a story published ever again and then after a while it passes. My rejection list is about ten times longer than my acceptance one but that's just how it goes.

Thanks Elle--and congrats on that recent acceptance!
Absolutely true that slow progress is better than none.
Do you have a WIP at the moment?
 

Elle.

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Thanks Elle--and congrats on that recent acceptance!
Absolutely true that slow progress is better than none.
Do you have a WIP at the moment?

Thanks!

I do have a main WIP, and I'm editing the hard copy at the moment to clean up the prose and deal with repetitions. I see those better on paper rather than on the screen. I've also been tinkering with a flash fiction and a short story as well, so basically keeping busy on top of the day job!
 

Paul Lamb

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I suppose I write literary fiction by default. I don't write in any of the recognized genres (western, romance, syfy, etc), and my stories do tend to be about the inner lives of my characters, with a lot of emphasis on the tone of the story telling. The stories I've had published have been mostly in the journals of MFA programs or college English departments and the like. Really, I just write the kind of stuff I like to read, at least as well as I can approximate that. It doesn't fit anywhere else.
 

ap123

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I suppose I write literary fiction by default. I don't write in any of the recognized genres (western, romance, syfy, etc), and my stories do tend to be about the inner lives of my characters, with a lot of emphasis on the tone of the story telling. The stories I've had published have been mostly in the journals of MFA programs or college English departments and the like. Really, I just write the kind of stuff I like to read, at least as well as I can approximate that. It doesn't fit anywhere else.

Sounds like lit fic to me. Welcome!

Do you have a current WIP?
 

jadeheavens

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Hey, just joined AW a few weeks ago and found this thread! I'm glad I stumbled upon it; I was having trouble finding where the other lit fic writers were until I thought of checking under the contemporary literature category. I see that this thread hasn't had much activity since last year--are the oldies on the thread still writing lit fic, and are there any newbies like me?

I'm currently doing a second or third round of edits on a 70k-word literary coming-of-age novel before hopefully finding some beta readers and querying. This project in particular has made me question the boundary between literary and upmarket, since aspects of each seem to apply to my novel. Like some other posters here, I'm still unsure what exactly counts as literary. Based on articles and posts discussing that question, however, I'm going to go ahead and say I write literary fiction since that's what inspires me and what I aim for.

Anyway, I'm hoping someone will chime in and get this thread going again! Looking forward to learning about your WIPs and random musings.
 
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Chris P

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Welcome judeheavens! As you can tell from the posting dates, this thread (and many of the genre threads) have fits and starts of activity. Once upon a time the literary share your work threads were quite heavily traveled, as was the kid-lit. So it goes, I guess.

If you find the fine line for literary, please let us know! That would resolve a lot of the discussions we have here. :) Of course, learning through the discussions when they happen is all part of it. In the meantime, write the book you need to write in the way you need to write it. What genre it fits and how to market it will come later. There is something to be said for writing to a market (my most successful short stories were written that way) but it's by no means required.
 

Lakey

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Hello jadeheavens! I feel the same way about my writing these days — I’m aiming for literary so I’m just going to go ahead and call myself a literary writer and then work toward that standard. And, you know, there is a lot of room even within that category. So I’m getting more comfortable there. It looks like I last posted on this thread a year ago; in that time I’ve racked up a few more near-misses but haven’t placed any more stories — still lots to do and lots to learn. Anyway — welcome. It’s always great to have new literary faces around. Please start discussions if you’re so inclined!

:e2coffee:
 

zclesa

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Welcome JadeHeavens and "Hi" again all my fellow Lit Ficcers. Hope you're all well and staying safe.

I'm still writing. I have been concentrating on short stories. I got a near-miss from [PANK] and two near-misses from Neon Magazine. You've reminded me to sub again. I've taken a bit of break from actively writing and subbbing, but I should get back to it.
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jadeheavens

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Glad to hear you're still writing, zclesa! It's frustrating to keep having near-misses, but I'm happy that you're planning to get back to subbing now--best of luck!
 

Animad345

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Hi everyone! How are you all?

I'm currently at a standstill with my manuscript, but trying to push through.
 

Chris P

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Good morning. My writing projects are more or less stuck, and have been for a very long time. I still think about them, gather research and sometimes add a scene or two. As much as I'd like these projects to cross the finish line, I'm not shaming myself about them. I'm enjoying the mental ruminations enough and some ideas are ironing themselves out.
 

Lakey

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Hello everyone!

Animad and Chris, I’ve probably spent more time being stuck than I’ve spent writing, especially with respect to my novel (as yet my first attempt at one). I really like your attitude, Chris, about not shaming yourself. Let your brain do what it needs to do.

Where am I? During our time in isolation I workshopped a short story, then worked on it some more, and got it to where I was ready to start submitting it. So I now have three stories out trying to find homes. Each of them is pending in five markets. Current plan is to lob in a new submission as soon as I get a rejection (which I did a few days ago). I think the stories are good. I don’t know if they are good enough.

Since finishing the most recent story, about a month ago, I’ve turned back to the novel in earnest—really with more focus than I have managed in a couple of years, I’d say, though it’s difficult on weekdays because of my job. I did a crazy thing—I paid Staples a chunk of change to print and bind a copy of the manuscript, and I just started working my way through it with a pen. Some sections need to be completely rewritten from the ground up. Others get by with just some line editing. I’m a little over a fifth of the way through, and if I can maintain my current pace, I will get to the end some time in January. (Then I’ll have to type in all these hand-edits and newly written material, of course, which will take at least another two months.)

If my pace flags, I have a couple other short stories in first-draft or second-draft form that I can work on for a break.

:e2coffee: