The W1S1 Short Fiction Check-in Lounge and Bar

[Lillie]

Yay! Izz!

Congratulations

[Izz]

Thanks! It was entirely unexpected, and unexpectedly nice, too.


And, because i'm in a sharing mood today , here are links to two things that've got me thinking about story ideas:

Stolen chewing gum being used as currency in Romania

Cosmic bubbles!

[SmallThing]

Originally Posted by Izz

I got reviewed! I had a story come out last year in a NZ lit zine, Takahe. And this morning i got an email from the review review telling me they'd reviewed issue #73 of Takahe on their site, and that i got a mention. It was a nice mention (almost a double-mention), too The full review is here.

Izz! Splendid!! (Sometimes you have to trot out the words that don't get used much.)

Also, great quote! So true.

[Lillie]

Chewing gum???

That's weird! And sort of hilarious.

And also hilarious is that someone set my local ASDA on fire by putting a lit fag in with the crisps.

I'm wondering if they'll have a sale on smoke damaged chewing gum.

[Nathaniel Katz]

I just finished my first story in... forever. Spent about a week puttering around with the opening, finally got a first thousand words that worked, then didn't write the next day. Then, today, I wrote four thousand words in a sitting and finished it. Wow, I missed this feeling.

[Izz]

Well done, Nat!

[fihr]

Wow, Izz, that's fantastic to get a review all of a sudden. Very cool.

Congrats, Nathaniel Katz. That is a great feeling.

I've got a story I've been working on all year, that slowed me right down. But I'm happy because I just knocked out a short in only two or three days, which I'm now subbing. My first submission this year, and I committed to one every two months (not much, I know), and I just scraped in.

And before that I wrote another story that is probably unsubmittable (don't know where it should go), but it only took me a week, it just flowed out.

In the background, the slower one is still chugging away. But at least my mind is now refreshed.

[gettingby]

Just finished my story for the week and it's only Sunday! It might need a little work, but it is a solid story and eight pages long. I have all week now to perfect it. Feeling a little ahead of the game.

[Izz]

Originally Posted by fihr

But I'm happy because I just knocked out a short in only two or three days, which I'm now subbing. My first submission this year, and I committed to one every two months (not much, I know), and I just scraped in.

Originally Posted by gettingby

Just finished my story for the week and it's only Sunday! It might need a little work, but it is a solid story and eight pages long. I have all week now to perfect it. Feeling a little ahead of the game.

Go you two!

[Sea Witch]

Does anyone ever look at the "report of recent responses from this market" on Duotrope and then count the different days to rejection, making yourself nuts with "well I lasted longer than this one" or "I lasted longer than that one" or "man, look at that long list of rejections!"?

[Izz]

Yep Sometimes i have to force myself to stay off duotrope for a couple days.

[SmallThing]

Duotrope is crazy making.

I opened my writing account today to find what I assumed was a rejection for a story that's been out forever to a market that I love. It wasn't a rejection, it was a request for a electronic copy to share with the editorial staff in prep for their next meeting.

Tiny little woot here.

[gettingby]

SmallThing that is great news! Good for you. I hope they take it.

[mhaynes]

Originally Posted by Sea Witch

Does anyone ever look at the "report of recent responses from this market" on Duotrope and then count the different days to rejection, making yourself nuts with "well I lasted longer than this one" or "I lasted longer than that one" or "man, look at that long list of rejections!"?

Umm... Yeah. That sounds about right.

Originally Posted by SmallThing

It wasn't a rejection, it was a request for a electronic copy to share with the editorial staff in prep for their next meeting.

Good luck!

[alexshvartsman]

Originally Posted by Sea Witch

Does anyone ever look at the "report of recent responses from this market" on Duotrope and then count the different days to rejection, making yourself nuts with "well I lasted longer than this one" or "I lasted longer than that one" or "man, look at that long list of rejections!"?

I obsessively check Duotrope once per day, specifically paying attention to the markets I currently have submissions at. And yeah, you kind of want to outlast the average rejection; that is a tiny victory

[Lillie]

Originally Posted by Sea Witch

Does anyone ever look at the "report of recent responses from this market" on Duotrope and then count the different days to rejection, making yourself nuts with "well I lasted longer than this one" or "I lasted longer than that one" or "man, look at that long list of rejections!"?

Yeah. I do that loads.


It's what Duo is for.

[V1c]

Oh, I'm always checking in with Duotrope. Sigh. Crack, that's what it is.

I haven't been able to write short stories working on my novel and such. But working on that, I feel like I'm the opposite of W1S1- It was at 35K, trying to go to 40 (YAish), and instead went to 30K - so I cut out a story's worth of stuff. ARGH.

7 stories out, 1 over 200 days at a 90 day market, another also over at a 90 day I came close to before.

[Sea Witch]

Can anyone shed some light on what PANK wants? Looks pretty foggy to me....

[Aggy B.]

Well, been an off week for me so far. Just busy in RL and a bit of drama with the Mister about how much effort should be devoted to writing and blahblahblah. So, I haven't written much.

After the rejection from Apex I sent Call-Center off to Asimov's so that'll be a while I expect before I hear anything. Good news is, so far I've gotten two higher tier Rs for it. Not sure if that really means anything or not.

Got a note from DSF this morning to say that In the Cool of the Day has not only made the second round but is now in the pile of final stories. Also said I can expect to wait a month before hearing anything else. >_< It's a bit of a surprise really; it's a big honking story (6.4k words) and one of the oldest I've been working on. (There was a really short version that I tried at 5-6 places and got nowhere. Started revisions last summer after the thing had sat idle for 12 months or so. Finally finished up the new version a few weeks ago.) So, I'm excited, but you know... more crickets. Yay! >_<

Guess it's time to actually finish something else.

[fihr]

Originally Posted by Aggy B.

Well, been an off week for me so far. Just busy in RL and a bit of drama with the Mister about how much effort should be devoted to writing and blahblahblah. So, I haven't written much.

That's always the tug-o-war, I think. Writing can't be justified financially for most people. I need to write for my health. I turn into a nasty person if I don't have something creative on the go. But I also neglect some of the practicalities in life so that I can write. I am not a domestic goddess. Something's got to give.

I like hearing about your story that you fixed up after leaving it twelve months, that's now doing much better. I've got one sitting there that is a bit like that... You've got me thinking.

[gettingby]

Finished another story today. That makes two this week. Trouble is I am not sure I like either of them. For sure, I am my worst critic. But still it sucks to not like your work. Why can't I just write something that is great? I am frustrated with my abilities or lack there of.

[soapdish]

I haven't been in here since 2011 since I'm not doing the W1S1 2012 short story challenge this year (unless you count still subbing all the stories I wrote last year for W1S1 ).

But I just wanted to pop in and let you guys know about something NEW we have started in the Horror forum.

I met a lot of writers here last year and beta read for a few of you who write horror (and write it very well, I might add).

So, if you write horror or are interested at all in writing horror, you can get the details on the challenge for March here.

/plug

Hope you all are doing well. I miss you guys. But have been busy on my W1S1 Novel challenge this year.

[Aggy B.]

Originally Posted by fihr

I like hearing about your story that you fixed up after leaving it twelve months, that's now doing much better. I've got one sitting there that is a bit like that... You've got me thinking.

Here's the thing. W1S1 is about keeping stuff moving. But some stories just need more time. And one thing I learned last year was that some things I'd put aside because I thought they weren't salvageable actually are. In the Cool of the Day is actually the third story I've done that with. Taken a good (but not great) short story and reworked it into a better (and in my case - longer) one. The Collections Agent didn't sit for as long as the other two, but it underwent some major revisions after being rejected by The Mammoth Book of Steampunk, Fantasy, Beneath Ceaseless Skies and Clarkesworld. The Hardest Kiss sat for two years before I started reworking it. (Not certain about how the revisions will take, it's at Tor.com right now and still in the depths of the queue.)

Personally, I find that sometimes I have good ideas that I can't quite do justice to in the first version. Sometimes I have to let them sit for a while to let my skills catch up with my ambition.

Aggy, rarely trunks anything but does have a big shelf of things that need revision

[Aggy B.]

I know there aren't too many in here to seem to like subbing to Tor.com, but I noticed yesterday that their submission guidelines have been updated.

Not much different, except that they do have a specific title string for email subs they ask you to use. FWIW.

Now I feel like I should resend my story with the new string. Ahhh. It's only been there 150+ days already. :P

Trying to get some momentum going on the short story front, but things have been crazy around here so I'm a little behind for the week.

[SmallThing]

Thanks for posting the guidelines update. I've something that I've been considering sending them. I've got two stories that have been out for close to six months at this point. A year's wait can't be that much worse, right?