16th March

I received an acceptance, and a contract. My first pro sale. That’s significant. It’s only a three hundred word story, so not likely to make my fame or fortune. But it’s the next step up the ladder.

Currently I have 11 pieces out for submission. The last four or five I think are heading towards the territory I need them to be, but we’ll see what the editors have to say.

As part of the continual effort to move forward I’m doing a tuition with Richard Thomas. This was a backers reward for the new magazine Gamut which he is launching with a stellar cast. I suspect I chose the wrong tory for us to workshop, but it already I have added a new process to my writing structure, and look forward to incorporating it in my next project (which as of yet is not decided on).

Let’s see what happens next.

March 2nd

I did some editing. But only a smidge.

Then I played about a bunch on @LossLit 

And a killer story idea strikes me, like a flat iron upside the head. Not the words that make the story, just the bundle of bones that make the skeleton, and not even all of those. The heads there, the legs too. I have arms,pelvis, and spine. But the ribs, where the heart sits, is missing. Not so much missing, as not yet present. In a moment of sense and clarity I’ve recorded what is available and that should allow me to tease out the the rest if it remains elusive.

AND, I’m firing up the printer, so I can edit on paper.

 

March 1st

No targeted writing this month.

It’s all about editing and re-writing.

Let’s see how that goes.

26th February

I’ve not written a blog post because I’ve had nothing to say. Better to say nothing and be thought a fool, than to open one’s mouth and confirm it, as the saying goes.

I’ve been writing a story that has a strict 2k word limit. My initial draft was over 3k. The venue the story is for is on my ‘hit-list’. I have a story for it that has been in production for about 14 months, but is still not finished because I’m still seeking the right balance of theme/presentation and don’t want to spoil the core idea with a less than best story. The current story, though, is a beast of a different nature. I jotted down the parameters, did an solo idea-blast session, then a short free-write to coalesce the better ideas.

From there the story flowed out & 3k words later it was time to start cutting. I did a whole bunch myself, then reached out for help. Mark Schultz did a first pass for me and gave some solid help, then kicked me in the butt and said ‘finish the rest’. So I did. But being a delicate flower I asked for more help.

My fellow first reader at Plasma Frequency, Gemma, stepped in.

She spotted the flaw at the heart of the piece.

See, in cutting it down from 3k to 2k I had lost all the subtleties that allowed the MC to be the MC they were. I ended up with an easily guessed twist and on the nose dialogue. Panic time. (Also, this came on the same day I had 2 submission rejections, and one of them pointed out several 101 typos – it was not a good day for my writing confidence).

Option 1, the easy option, was to do nothing. Forget the whole thing and put the story into my burgeoning ‘to be revised file’. Option 2, the cowards/fools option, was to submit it as is. This was never going to happen. Option 3, wallow in self pity and then do the damned edits required.

I went for Option 3. It reads better. The feedback is positive as well (apart from an odd typo).

I’m in no way sure that this submission will get past the first readers, never mind anywhere near publication. But I am massively pleased that I chose Option 3. Too many times I’ve tried Option 2, so many of my pieces are victims of Option 1 (often as a result of being put through Option 1).

Onwards and onwards.

7th February

3526 words for the first week of February. Not the massive start I hoped for, but I lost one day to being out, and another to inertia.

I’ve also had two stories this week that I queried. One was rejected five days before my query, the other had never arrived at the target market.

There’s no clear way of explaining what has happened in these cases, I’d just say, keep good track of your subs.

January 31st

29th 753

30th 508

31st 980

Between the 22nd & today I have written 6843 words of new fiction, plus my blog posts. I’ve completed two new stories, one of which has been submitted (and not yet rejected!)

This is vindication for restarting my 500 per day.

Next month Im working on a month total of 14,500, but hope to blast that in the first 2-3 weeks, as I have a story to edit for a end of Feb submission, and I have a suite of stories to edit & proof for self publishing.

Beyond that I’m also about to start Couch-to-5k, a diet, and 25 days of teetotalism (I’m away with the good lady for our anniversary at the end of Feb – not staying dry for that – there’s champagne to be drunk!).

So, January has been a month of hell, but I accomplished some new writing and that’s good.

Tomorrow counts as my official start to the year 2016, I aim to hit the ground running.

January 28

524 words.

That’s now 7 full days of daily writing. I’ve written 4,602 words, an average of 657 per day, 131.4% of daily target. Go me.

More importantly than that, I’ve completed two stories and taken part in two flash challenges, so this has all been writing with a purpose, a focus.

One of the stories has even been submitted. The other needs to lose just over 1000 words before I can send it to the call I wrote for.

 

On other things than writing:

There’s been a small furore in the media recently about the All White Oscars, and the ensuing discussion wound it’s way to a forum I follow where someone asked views on actively choosing to have non-SWM (straight/white/male) writers in anthologies.

I’ll be honest. Up until a few years ago I was a straight forward ‘quality of work should be the only criteria’ kind of person. It appeals to my innate sense of justice, of fairness. And of course, in some things that is a perfect ideal. Where the only qualifying factor is a certain skill, then choosing on that skill alone what to do.

But what about choosing who goes in an anthology? Again, you can say only quality of work should matter, and things like a blind reading panel means only the good stories can be selected. But here’s a thing. Choosing a story is all about the subjective. Sure there are obvious skills, but most anthologists will receive a plethora of entries – I know of one who is currently complaining about the task of selecting a final line up from the stories that survived the on-going cull which occurred through the submission period (I didn’t make it that far).

So if it is such a subjective process, why not choose to have more non-SWM’s?

Someone objected to this idea, suggesting it was denying us poor SWM’s a fair chance. Really? How? We have so many opportunities open to us, and this isn’t closing them, just giving others a better opportunity at being heard.

I do not believe that the majority of bias for SWM is conscious. Some of it definitely is, but my belief is the majority is unconscious bias. That means it is lazy bias. It means people aren’t engaging with the world around them and considering what inequalities they see, and thinking about what part they can play in changing things. That’s why I am all in favor of conscious bias. If the upshot of that is I have to submit a piece more times, or have to develop my writing skills to a greater degree, how am I hurt? If an anthology is going to have twenty stories, and last year they were all SWM, but this year at least 50% will be non-SWM, I still have better odds at being selected than my non-SWM compatriots, I’m still getting a benefit.

Choosing based on characteristics rather than skills is not nice. It’s objectionable. But it happens every day, and most days the results go my way. Maybe not for me, but for my SWM type. We get the job, the free pass for being over the speed limit, the promotion, the raise, the well, let’s be honest, majority of things. So let’s try a little conscious bias, start leveling the playing field a it.

January 27

510 words.

Just.

But it’s good stuff.

Wish I knew where it was going to end up going. Who’ll take a story about a woman knitting a golem to replace her dead husband? (I lie. I have a target in mind.)

 

In other news, I need to start this earlier so I have time to do a decent blog post, instead of scraping one in just before midnight.

 

January 26

614 words for the day.

It was like pulling teeth, but mainly because I needed to do extra research on the hoof.

 

January 25th

Today I wrote 628 words, and finished a story.

The story is 3,049 words long. To be ready for submission it needs to be 2000 at most. Derp.

Ho hum. Main thing is ‘I finished a story.’ which is pretty genius for me right now.

Other things:

I read back over some of last years entries. The ones I like most were the ones that went of on something not related to writing. I intend to restart that tomorrow. The subject? We’ll start with ‘White Oscars’ and go from there.

See you then.