The W1S1 Check-in and Chill Lounge and Bar

Gnome

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In one of those funks, have been all week, haven't written all week which sucks because I feel it. I do have about a dozen subs out there, though. But still, sigh.

I'm in a funk, too. :(
 

Aggy B.

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I'm gathering this is where we check in and hold ourselves accountable for progress?

I posted a new flash piece in fantasy SYW based on this week's prompt, hooded. Did some research on places to submit. I was thinking about Cicada, the YA branch of cricket for my Chinese girl story. I'm probably going to wimp and call it Mei Li because I can't think of anything else.

Has anybody submitted to Cicada, or do you know anything about it? All I know is I used to like reading Cricket to my kids and they pay up to 25 cents a word. I don't get that up to, though. Why don't they just say what they pay?

Some mags offer a base rate for unknown authors and a higher rate for known authors or for work that's in a recognizable world. (A short story connected to a book the author wrote, for example.) At least, that's how I've always figured it.

I subbed something to Cicada a while back. Seem to recall they were fairly prompt with the polite rejection.
 

AliceWrites

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In one of those funks, have been all week, haven't written all week which sucks because I feel it. I do have about a dozen subs out there, though. But still, sigh.

Sometimes a rest does the mind good. I usually find that after a few days of not writing I come back refreshed and then am doubly productive. :)
 

Batspan

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Alice Writes, One chapter a week is plenty. It's not how much, it's the staying at it that counts. Glad you're making progress.

Cathleen, Welcome. People do all kinds of check-in here. No harm in mentioning F&SF -- BTW, I did notice people posting queue numbers in the 'do you know about this market' thread or some such, for all of you watching those numbers.

Zanzjan, Post-Worldcon gallivanting and a supervolcano and a new blood-tasting avatar... good inspirations. We've had a red tide and 6.0 earthquake inland from here on the Northern California coast. I aspire to gallivant.

V1C, Gnome — Sometimes after a field lies fallow it produces better than before. Odd as it may sound, I find hiking helps. Getting out in nature recharges my creativity and productivity. Reading high-impact fiction works, too. Most effective of all, set a date and time and do it. Dorothea Brande's book kicked me into that. Her approach to writing is total tough-ass.

Congrats to everyone on progress.

I finished editing the first section of the Gothic horror novel Monday, so I'm more than a third of the way through the 3rd draft. Being as efficient as possible. I keep notes on what I need to accomplish, so I know what to do every time I open Scrivener.

Despite juggling multiple projects for multiple clients, I managed to take two days off this week for the first time in ages.

Dropping the short fiction project is giving me more time for work-life balance and I've popped my income out of the danger zone.

I've been taking notes on what's working for people who are self-publishing short stories. There's an inspiring thread on that in the self-pub area here and more on the Kindle boards.

I'm going to finish and publish this novel and the sequel to The Animals of London first. Down the line I may put out collections of the short stories. I'm transitioning to write-one-pub-one.
 
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zanzjan

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Multi-batspan quote!

It's not how much, it's the staying at it that counts. Glad you're making progress.

^This.

Cathleen, Welcome.

...and ^this. :welcome:

Zanzjan, Post-Worldcon gallivanting and a supervolcano and a new blood-tasting avatar... good inspirations. We've had a red tide and 6.0 earthquake inland from here on the Northern California coast. I aspire to gallivant.

The avatar came from a photo I took of an actual warning sign inside the London Zoo.

I first heard about the earthquake, because all my west-coast friends suddenly showed up during UK-time on AW Chat :) Hope you and yours weathered it without problems.

Odd as it may sound, I find hiking helps. Getting out in nature recharges my creativity and productivity.

Walking my dog is great for this too, especially at night when the stars are out.

I finished editing the first section of the Gothic horror novel Monday, so I'm more than a third of the way through the 3rd draft.

Congrats on the progress, and the days off! I don't outline or anything on first drafts, but in subsequent passes I find notes absolutely essential.

Had a lot of time to think about my various WIPs while traveling, and just now catching up enough with work and home things to start diving in again. It was a good break, even if the volcano waited until AFTER I left to start doing really interesting stuff.
 

Melinda Moore

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Looks like I've missed a lot. Welcome to the newcomers. Just finished a novel. I'm hoping to write a few flash pieces this month and stay away from the longer works. Seems like I'm spinning my wheels.
 

Gnome

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V1C, Gnome — Sometimes after a field lies fallow it produces better than before. Odd as it may sound, I find hiking helps. Getting out in nature recharges my creativity and productivity. Reading high-impact fiction works, too. Most effective of all, set a date and time and do it. Dorothea Brande's book kicked me into that. Her approach to writing is total tough-ass.

Thanks for the ideas! I'm long overdue for a hike.
 

Hapax Legomenon

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I've "finished" a story at 2.4k that I think may even be able to be cut down to flash fiction.

I mean finishing stories that you don't really think have any potential is supposed to help, right?
 

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Hapax: Practice never hurts, as far as I'm concerned. Even if a story turns out not to be salable, it's still good practice for writing stories that are.
 

Filigree

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Plus, you never know when the right market will pop up for a 'trunked' story. If the story's mostly finished, all the better. Two pieces I have out right now started as spec pieces for no particular market, years ago. Two more WIP novellas began as short stories. As I gain in writing ability, I take fresh looks at my old work. Sometimes they are worth updating.
 

ACFantasy

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Revised and subbed one final story for the month:

Some stats:

This month, I drafted, revised, and finished 3 stories. I submitted all of those, and I also revised and resubmitted 3 other stories that I first wrote earlier this year. One of those stories was sent out twice this month after a quick rejection earlier in the month. So in total I wrote 3 stories this month and sent out 7 total submissions.

In terms of rejections, I received 2 this month--one from a magazine and one from an anthology.

Total, I have written 14 short stories so far this year. I have made 40 submissions so far this year, of which 27 were rejected, 3 were lost due to technical issues, and 10 are still active. So I've got 10 out now--which is, incidentally, a new record for me.

In terms of word count, I think I'm at about 60,000 words this year in short stories, not counting a few that I wrote and then turfed for not being good enough.

Next month I need to focus more on my thesis. But hopefully I'll have time for a story or two. :)
 

Hapax Legomenon

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Uh, question, how long do you let short stories sit before you go at them with a machete? I mean edit. Edit is the word I was looking for...
 

Aggy B.

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Uh, question, how long do you let short stories sit before you go at them with a machete? I mean edit. Edit is the word I was looking for...

Hey, I have an editing machete. Very effective too.

For me it just depends on the story. Usually a week is sufficient, but sometimes I already have fixes in mind so I'll go ahead and do those, then let it all sit for a bit. (I don't edit much as I go, so sometimes I have several notes about scenes that need tweaking by the time I get to the end of a draft.) If I read through and think it all needs to be changes or nothing needs to be changed then I let it sit a little longer.
 

CathleenT

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Hapax, I don't know if it will work for you, but I usually write or edit something in between to clear my mind, except, as Aggy says, for thoughts that come to me right away (there's really no virtue in waiting to delete unnecessary repetitions of 'that' or similar). Or I post it and wait for feedback.

Speaking of posting, I've got several pieces that have been through the SYW process and seem to be as good as I can get them, based on critiques.

So now I'm to the hyperventilating stage-submission. I have no idea why this intimidates me so much, but it does. I'm trying to tell myself it's just posting on a different forum without detailed feedback. I went and built up a list of websites that I thought might be suitable.

And if you all wouldn't mind being patient with more questions, what next? (Other than actually, gulp, submitting them.) I'm thinking more in terms of organization. My only thought is to have a Word page where I jot down each story's progression.

Does anyone else have any ideas on how to keep track of this stuff? I see lots of you with multiple submissions running simultaneously. Does anybody have better ideas for managing this? And if so, would you share them?

Thanks.
 

ACFantasy

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Cathleen:

I use an Excel spreadsheet, though it's becoming a bit unwieldy now that I've got fourteen stories written this year. Still, it's a simple way to keep track of my stories, word counts, and markets; I just have a big table with one story per column, one market per row, and I fill in the cells on the table as I submit and accrue responses.
 

Hapax Legomenon

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Cathleen, right now I'm using the Submissions Grinder to keep track of everything. I realize I should have my own spreadsheet and stuff but I'm really, really lazy.

Uh, on a scale of 1 to 10, how stupid of an idea is it to submit something without it being beta'ed? Perhaps I should say that this is an ~500 word piece.
 

Aggy B.

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Does anyone else have any ideas on how to keep track of this stuff? I see lots of you with multiple submissions running simultaneously. Does anybody have better ideas for managing this? And if so, would you share them?

Thanks.

I, too, use The Submission Grinder. It's pretty useful for keeping track of stuff and has all the links to submissions guidelines right there. And it's free. Unlike Duotrope.

Cathleen, right now I'm using the Submissions Grinder to keep track of everything. I realize I should have my own spreadsheet and stuff but I'm really, really lazy.

Uh, on a scale of 1 to 10, how stupid of an idea is it to submit something without it being beta'ed? Perhaps I should say that this is an ~500 word piece.

I don't beta everything I sub. But it depends on the piece. If I feel comfortable with it, I usually just let it go. If it's nagging at me, I find a reader to look at it first.
 

V1c

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I have an excel spreadsheet I use. But it is my info from duotrope before it became paid- so even has all the expected dates and formulas in it, so tells me when things are due, etc. I started using the grinder, but find Excel that much easier.

For beta- I don't beta a lot of things before it goes out. You come to know your stories, I think. But if it's sent back a lot or I'm on the fence I'll ask someone for a read.
 

Hapax Legomenon

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All right, well, I submitted something to Flash Fiction Online without a beta. It was a silly little thing so maybe something will come of it...
 

Melinda Moore

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I finally sent out six stories last night that I had allowed to collect over the summer rejections. No rejections this morning as a result :) I also decided it was time to start querying agents and sent one off this morning. We'll see how long this new schedule I created lasts.
 

Gnome

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I finally sent out six stories last night that I had allowed to collect over the summer rejections. No rejections this morning as a result :) I also decided it was time to start querying agents and sent one off this morning. We'll see how long this new schedule I created lasts.

I just did the same thing. I'd gotten pretty lazy about resubmitting things.

I think I've recovered from my funk; I started work on a new story tonight. :)
 

Tamlyn

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A lot of places mention in their guidelines when to query. For those that don't, look at some place like the submissions grinder and if most the subs out are longer than yours, I'd leave it for later.
 

Hapax Legomenon

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See, that's the thing. The magazine I submitted to has submission periods and they said that they'll probably get back to you 2 weeks after the end of the submissions period and that you can query after 3. The end of the submissions period was Aug 15th... but on the submissions grinder there's no indication that anyone else has heard back, either. And it's not like they didn't get it. It still says "in progress" in Submittable.
 

Aggy B.

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If the projected response time is usually short I will double it before querying. So if they say a week or two, then I wait a month because high volume can easily skew those numbers. As the projected time goes up, the sooner I'll query after that point has passed. (Six weeks - query at eight. Nine weeks - query at ten. Three months or more - query as soon as that deadline passes.) Of course, if they've made a statement somewhere about being behind I'll bend those times as appropriate. But I once waited an extra month (after three passed) before querying, only to discover my story hadn't made it into the reading queue. Now I always query promptly.