Category: writing career

I had set myself some ambitious writing goals at the outset of the year, and now that half the year has passed, I can say that I have done a pretty terrible job at meeting those goals. Fortunately, there is a second half year in which I can play “catch-up”.  Here is a summary of the first half of 2010:

• I wrote a total of 38,300 words of fiction
• I completed 3 stories (1 story was a complete enough rewrite of another story as to make it “new”).
• I spent 53 hours at the keyboard
• I wrote on 34 distinct days (out of roughly 180) which is pretty abysmal.  It turns out to be roughly 2 days out of every 10.
• On the days that I did write, I spent about 90 minutes at the keyboard, on average, writing just about 1,100 words.
• My best writing “streak” was February 20-24, during which time I wrote a total of 8,500 words.
• I made 14 story submissions (I was aiming for more like 50)
• I received 12 rejections, 3 of which had helpful editorial comments.
• I have 2 submissions still “outstanding” as the first half of the year comes to a close.

So, what need to change for the second half of 2010 for me to stay close to the goals that I set for myself?  Several things:

1. I need to write more.  I set out to write 20 stories and I have written 3 so far.  The only way to even come close to 20 is to spend more time writing.  I plan on doing this beginning tomorrow, going back to my habit of getting up earlier and writing in the mornings.  I was doing 2 hours before, but I plan on starting with 1 hour and seeing how it goes.  On a good day, I can write as much as 1,400 words in an hour, but I seem to average about 1,000.  That’s 7,000 words/week or over 180,000 words in the remainder of 2010, if I can stick with the schedule.
2. I need to write shorter stories.  My stories are typically in the 7,500-10,000 word range.  There is nothing wrong with this, except that longer stories mean fewer stories and fewer stories mean fewer opportunities for submitting.  Also, many markets prefer stories that are under 5,000 words.  I am working on a story now that I am purposely aiming to keep under 5,000 words.  I hope to have this one finished before Readercon.  After this one, I have at least 2 or 3 stories planned which I intend to keep under the 5,000 word-mark.  In theory, this means I can produce the first draft of a story per week.  I’m going to see how this pans out in July and then reevaluate.
3. I need to have a backup project to keep me writing everyday.  My focus is on the stories.  But sometimes, you find that you are just not in the mood to work on what is in front of you.  I tend to skip writing on these days.  Instead, I am going to try switching to a backup project.  This is a novel-length work that I was planning to save for NaNoWriMo this year, but that I am pulling out now as something to work on on those days that I don’t feel up to facing the short-fiction.
4. Keep the submissions going.  I will be making my first submissions to both Lightspeed Magazine and Redstone Science Fiction in the second half of 2010, as well as the staple of professional magazines that I have been submitting to all along.

Readercon is next week and events like that usually inspire me to push ahead with my writing.  I’m looking forward to that push, but I am not waiting until the con to get started. I get started tomorrow morning with a goal of completing the first draft of this new story (my 4th for the year) by the end of the weekend.

I’m still aiming for the 5 sales this year, but at this point would be happy with just 1 more pro sale in order to become a full active (as opposed to associate)  member of SFWA.

The first rejection of a new story is always the most difficult one for me.  The new story is complete, you’ve worked hard on it, trying to build into it what you’ve learned from previous rejections as well as new experiences you’ve added to your writing.  You revise the story more carefully, you gather feedback from people you trust.  You cut, cut, cut away the fat.  And you end up with something that you feel proud to send out.

And then, the story comes back.  It’s a downer.  It’s even more of a downer when it comes back with a form letter, especially if you’ve been getting some amount of editorial feedback on your recent rejections.  I have to admit, it made for a bit of a tough night last night.  I went home enthusiastic to get some writing done, and when I found the rejection slip in the mailbox, I lost some of that fire.

But I’m feeling better today.  The rejected manuscript is out at another market and I am eagerly looking forward to finishing up the latest story that I am working on.   I am somewhat behind schedule for where I’d like to be, storywise, but sometimes, a rejection is just the thing you need to spur you along.  The more stuff you can produce, the more you learn, the more stuff you have to send out.  And hopefully, with each completed story, the next story you work on gets better.

Yes, first rejections on new stories are tough.  They are your babies.  Often times, as writers, our favorite stories are the ones we just finished so we become more emotionally attached to those.  But now that it has been rejected that first time the sting is gone, and I’m ready to jump back in the writer’s seat and move on to the next one.

And for the record, my score for the year, so far, is: 8 submission, 6 rejections, 2 outstanding.

I haven’t started the new story yet, or for that matter, done any writing at all since sending the latest one off on Monday.  There have been lots of distractions:  Zach has an ear infection (his first).  We have contractors at the house repairing a closet that was damaged by a leaky shower.  It’s been non-stop hectic.  But the other problem I’ve had–the one that is stymied me–is that I lost the voice for the character.  I had the voice running through my head a few weeks ago, and then it was gone.  I couldn’t seem to get it back.  It was really disappointing because I liked the voice.

Last night, however, while in the shower, the voice came back.  The entire opening of the story was rendered clearly in my head in the voice I was looking for, and if I’d had a keyboard in the shower with me, I could have typed it out as dictation directly from my brain.  I made sure to lock it in so as not to loose it again.  And sure enough, when I woke up this morning, the voice was still there, strong as ever.

I hope to get started on the new story this evening.  I’m trying to write a series of shorter stories over the next month or two.  My goal is to keep them all at 4,000 words or less (my stories typically run 7-10K words; “In the Cloud” was 7,500 words).  We’ll see how it goes.

I didn’t write this morning.  That’s okay, because Kelly has a girls’ night tonight and I figured once I put Zachary down (assuming he cooperated) I’d have an hour or so to make more progress on the third draft of the February story.  As it turns out, Zachary did cooperate and at 7:15, I found the house quiet, with Zachary sound asleep.  Plenty of time for me to revise a scene or two before Kelly got home.

The thing is, I’ve been reading Connie Willis‘ new novel, Blackout, which has been very good.  Last night, it started to get really good and today at lunch, it got phenomenally good.  So good, in fact, that I simply have to pass on writing this evening and read more of the book.  If I tried to write, I’d be constantly distracted, thinking about what was happening in her book (as opposed to my story) and I would simply be fooling myself.  I’d make no progress.  So why fool myself?  I’ll delay my writing until tomorrow morning and settle down for the next 2 hours or so with her book.

I wonder if this book is merely part of Connie Willis’ ploy to take over science fiction completely by distracting all other writers in the business with her amazing ability to tell a good story, to say nothing of her skills as a Writer.