Update Shmupdate

Well, it's been a week since The Absent Willow Review accepted my well-traveled short story "The Machine," and I really haven't come down from the high yet. I've suffered one rejection since (of course) but I've also finished and submitted another story, and we all know that new stories have a cleansing quality about them.

While I have officially backed off of the W1S1 challenge, I'm still using it as something of a yard marker as I go about my writing. And with all of the W1S1-created stories I have out in the slushiverse, I still feel like part of the family. To their immense credit, nobody over at the Absolute Write forums has kicked me out of the W1S1 lounge.

Yet.

Speaking of W1S1, my April story "My Ray Gun and Me" is still out at a certain market that shall remain nameless, and pretty well beyond the expected response time listed on the website. I've queried to see if they can get a move on, but have yet to hear anything back. Hey, I understand being busy, but queries should get priority.

Blink-Ink has yet to get back to me regarding the Blink-Noir issue. The confirmation email I received in May said they would be reading for the issue in June, but we're more than halfway through July with no answer. Have you or anyone you know submitted to this market, and if so, have you heard back?

In an unusual twist, most of the stories I still have out have, at least according to Duotrope Digest, outlasted other submissions that were sent in more recently than mine. I have been told that this is a good thing, that it could mean I've made it to the "Maybe" pile, but I (obviously) don't know how true that is. It's certainly a change of pace from when I first began submitting work a couple of years ago, as those stories tended to come back well under the expected response time. I think I mentioned before, AWR, the market that just accepted "The Machine," once rejected a story of mine in one day. And it wasn't the first one to do that, so I guess this can't be bad, right?

Okay, anyway, I haven't been able to give a positive update since I joined W1S1, so let me get to it.

Written
Thomas Jefferson (3600 words)

Subbed
Thomas Jefferson (Machine of Death Vol 2)

Rejected
Summer of Change (Electric Spec)

Accepted
The Machine (The Absent Willow Review)

One Hand Giveth...

Well, I spent about a day and a half walking on clouds after the sale of "The Machine" to The Absent Willow Review, but I knew at some point the writing gods would remind me what it's like on terra firma. That brings me to my latest rejection for "Summer of Change," one of my last W1S1 stories.

Last? Let's say latest. But in truth, I don't see W1S1 in my near future. I had planned on giving a few excuses involving my hectic personal life, but I don't need excuses, I need reasons, and the reason I'm taking a break from W1S1 is because I just don't see the same quality in my W1S1 stories that I see in my other writing. I re-read "The Machine last night and found that it's better than anything I've written in months. Not that the idea is necessarily better than, say, "Summer of Change," but it's more polished, has a better narrative flow. There's a voice that I don't have in the other work. It's no coincidence that "The Machine" has been revised (not rewritten; revised, polished) three or four times.

I'm not a quick writer, and I've found that the longer I stay in the challenge, the more difficult it becomes to meet the deadlines. I moved from the monthly to the weekly challenges because I thought it would light a fire under me--which it did--but ultimately the same thing happened, and I spent more time worrying about getting done than getting it done right. 

Things could change, of course. They usually do. 

W1S1 Check-In: Week 25 (Week 4)

It's 4:30 in the morning on Sunday, which means I have nineteen and a half hours to left before deadline, but the truth is that I just don't have anything near enough to finished to warrant waiting for this update, so here goes. Despite a whole lot of writing, I only have the one, very short, short story to show in terms of completed fiction. I finished that way back on Tuesday or Wednesday, so the last few days have been spent trying to improve the time-travel story I said was finished last week, but turned out to be wrong about. Also, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I began writing a short story with my brother, which has actually become my main focus. EDIT: Wow, I almost broke my rule and started talking about the story. Durp. Anyway, here's the breakdown:

Written

Black Tooth/White Tooth (350 word flash)

Subbed

Black Tooth/White Tooth

The Bright Walk (non-W1S1)

NO! WE DON'T WANT IT!

Black Tooth/White Tooth (Mud Luscious Press Online)

OMG I CAN HAZ STORY?!

Nuttin.

He Ain't Heavy, He's My New Writing Partner

Well, it's only Tuesday, and this week is shaping up much like last week.  I've already written and subbed a little 350-word jaunt, I''m still working on last week's finished/unfinished story, and I've even started a short story to be co-written with my younger brother Ben. 

I'm particularly excited about that last bit, because Ben has been the one guy (now that he's nearing his mid-20s, I think it's safe to call him "guy" as opposed to "kid") that I've been able to share my journey with as a peer. Obviously W1S1 is a great community, and the people at Absolute Write are just amazing, but there's a different dynamic in sitting down and rapping with a fellow writer over a cup of coffee. Last night on the phone (Ben now lives in Florida, of course, after I've just said all that) he pitched me an idea he was tossing around for a short story, and I returned his volley with the idea that I think we should finally jump over the freaking broom and write a story together. 

I don't know how long the project will take, but I doubt it will come together in just one week, so that won't be my main focus for W1S1. I've technically already gotten the challenge completed for this week, but with all this time left, I'm sure I have another good yarn in me. Back to work!

W1S1 Check-In: Week 23 (Week 2)

Blech.

Great start to the week, a not-so-great finish. Started out with a from-scratch rewrite of an old, previously non-w1s1 story entitled "Magic Words" which I wrapped up in a couple of days. By Thursday I had a new story near completion, but for whatever reason I just wasn't feeling it anymore, and now I'm pretty sure it's headed for my "Bits N Pieces" folder.

I did manage to sub two stories this week, however. "The Machine" went out again, which, if you recall, is my most well-traveled story to date. It's been in the slush pile of another magazine for over 70 days, which is 40 days longer than they say to wait for a response. My query has gone unanswered for over a month, and so I've decided that I'm sending it elsewhere, and if this market wants it, well, they better hurry the hell up. 

Once again, there are no acceptances or rejections to report, so the wait continues. I have a knack for amassing three and sometimes four rejections in a week, and I have a feeling that another week like that is on the way. Or maybe I'll get four or five acceptances! Fingers crossed.

Better Late Than Never, Write??

It came down to the wire, but my first weekly w1s1 story is done. Finished. Finito. Also, subbed. Honestly, it would have (read: should have) been finished mid-week, but I was under the weather, and nothing stifles my muse like a little sick.

But all is well now (including me), and I have a 4,500-word story, entitled "Summer of Change", sitting on a slush pile somewhere. Nyet too shabby, comrades. 

 No rejections to report, thankfully. But no acceptances, either. Oh well. Onward and upward to the next storahhh! 

W1S1 April Results

Well, April is at an end (how?!) and I figured I'd join in with the rest of the Write1 Sub1 world by posting my progress for the month, both regarding the contest and my other projects. So here goes:

Stories Written in April: 2 

My Ray Gun and Me
Back in the Day

Submissions: 5 


My Ray Gun and Me (2x)
Back in the Day (2x) 
The Liar


Rejections: 3


The Liar (from March submission, Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
My Ray Gun and Me (Lightspeed Magazine)
Back in the Day (Word Riot)


Acceptances: 0  :(




Still no luck. It has been over a year since Midwest Literary Magazine accepted "Goldie" to be a part of their February issue, and I'm really starting to miss that buzz I got when that email arrived. It wasn't long after that when I found out they had included me in their print anthology, which was arguably even more cool than the online magazine, and not all that long since I placed in Spectra Magazine's microfiction contest, but neither quite felt like that acceptance.

Oh well. One of these days.

It Never Goes The Way You Plan It

When we last talked, I mentioned a story that I had been working on, a little ditty that was threatening to become my longest story ever. I brought it up because I was on a roll, and planning to use that story as my very first entry into the Write 1 Sub 1 monthly challenge (check THIS post for an explanation of W1S1).

Well, because Fate is such a fickle mistress, all of the good feelings I had for that story disappeared almost immediately after writing about it on this blog. I used to post much more frequently, and often discussed stories I was writing, or at least mentioned that I was working on one idea or another, and I cut down on the posts precisely because I felt they were sapping me of creative juices. Hey, for all I know, that's a load of BS and the story just died on me, which happens. But I'd rather play it safe from now on and just never...ever...mention stuff I'm currently working on. 

So anyway, as the end of April rapidly approaches, I went from thinking I might be able to pump out two stories for this month, to being in very real danger of not even finishing the one that I had so obnoxiously promised to have finished well ahead of time. So I tried...and I tried...

And I tried...

But nothing came. 

And then, just this morning, I had an idea. 1800 words later, I have a finished story. And...

SUBBED! 

Wow, is that the first ever live-blogging of a short story submission? See, that's why you follow this blog, people. History happens here. :D 

Write 1 Sub 1, Month 1 (for me, anyway) completed! 

Change of Pace

Trying something new this year.

I've been aware of NaNoWriMo since it began a few years back, but since I'm not a novel writer (yet, anyway), it's never really been something I ever gave much thought. There have been other, similar challenges inspired by NaNoWriMo, but the ones I've seen are usually just NaNoWriMo in other fields--WoPoWriMo for poetry, NaPiWriMo for picture books, etc..

Until now, that is.

Ever since I left the Hothouse writing group, I've been staying away from Writer's Beat, which is where most/all of the members of the group spend a lot of time. But lately I've been missing the shop talk; my life is woefully devoid of folks to chat with about the craft.

So I stumble across Absolute Write, which appears to be a bigger version of Writer's Beat. They have a lot of services for new writers, including background checks on markets, which has already twice saved me from submitting my work to scam artists. I haven't joined yet, but I've been browsing (lurking?) the boards a lot lately, and it was during one of these quiet strolls that I found the W1S1 sub-forum. That is, Write 1 Sub 1, a challenge for writers of short fiction or poetry to write and submit one story per week.

(the story you submit in that week does not have to be the same one you wrote that week, for the record)

I am not a prolific writer. I am the opposite of that. And speaking of prolific, why is unprolific not a word? The antonyms for it are words like barren, fruitless, impotent, and unproductive (according to Thesaurus.com, anyway). Fruitful has fruitless and unfruitful, but prolific can't even have one true opposite? Lame. I am neither impotent or barren, since both of those words have colloquial implications that might get in the way of what I'm trying to say. You know what? Screw it. I am an unprolific writers. Neologisms rule.

Anyway, armed with that knowledge, you will better understand why I, at first, shied away from the idea of Write 1 Sub 1. But today--just now, right before I started writing this--I found the badge pictured above. Yes, they make a Write 1 Sub 1 for us sloths, too. One story written, and one story subbed, per month.

And, barring any ridiculousness (another good word I'd throw an 'un' in front of and make a pair), the story I'm working on now will be that story. Still don't have a title for it, but I think I'm somewhere around the halfway point (I may have already passed it). The interesting thing about this tale isn't just that it will be my first W1S1 submission, nor that the words are coming easier for this than they have for any story in close to a year, but because the point I've referred to as "the halfway point" is 6,200 words in. The longest story I've ever written weighed in at 7,500 words, so we might have a new contender for the crown here. I'll let you know.

That's it for me. And hey, if you're one of the four people who follow my blog, or stumbled across it by some happy accident and you're a writer or know someone who is, please spread the word. W1S1 isn't about competing, it's about getting writers to write and sub, something that most non-writers would be shocked to know does not happen enough.