The W1S1 Check-in and Chill Lounge and Bar

Batspan

My Religion is kindness -Dalai Lama
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 5, 2013
Messages
508
Reaction score
33
Location
California
Website
bathughes.wordpress.com
Sian -- Good going. As for waiting, I go quietly or loudly insane.
Zanzjan -- Thanks for the info and congrats on the high word count.
AC -- Here's to a speedy and good response.

I responded to a request from an editor to submit to an anthology, so that was my first fiction sub in many weeks.

After a lot of weighing of pros and cons, I set aside my Gothic horror novel.

I edited the next episode of Vampire Madam and I'm aiming to release it this month. So I'll be meeting my goal of publishing more eBooks before the end of the year. I'm also about to launch another self-publishing adventure next week and that will be the focus for 2015.
 

Brandon M Johnson

hard at work
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 29, 2013
Messages
343
Reaction score
53
Haven't posted much lately, as I was pretty focused on NaNo last month. I managed to slay 50K and it was a really enlightening process.

In particular, I reached the end of the story at about 30K words, so I got to do something I rarely do: expand instead of cut. It was really interesting to approach writing from a different perspective and I think it helped me grow a lot as both a writer and an editor.

Hope everyone else here who did NaNo did well or learned something new.

Let's finish the year strong!
 

Eliza C

We’ll see what happens from here…
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 21, 2010
Messages
944
Reaction score
77
Well, tentatively, I think I'm back after a long hiatus. The W1S1 goal of one story a month really helped my productivity for a couple of years until I got overwhelmed with other things going on early this year and I dropped out for awhile. My hope now is for more writing time from here on out, and back to my one short story a month or one+ chapter a month.

One more thing to share in the lounge: the upcoming anthology, Athena's Daughters 2 accepted my story a few months ago and is now gearing up for their Kickstarter to begin mid-Dec. They're trying for a "Thunderclap" intro to the Kickstarter. If anyone wants to help spread the word they have 8 days to try and reach 100 people. You just go to this Thunderclap link, scroll down and click to share an automatic post on FB, Twitter or Tumblr that will post on Dec 16th, the day the Kickstarter begins.

Thanks to anyone willing to help spread the word this or any other way :)
 

Aggy B.

Not as sweet as you think
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 28, 2008
Messages
11,882
Reaction score
1,557
Location
Just north of the Deep South
Well, after fighting the flu for a week and a half (the type A mutant strain that is negating this years flu vaccine) I'm finally feeling mostly normal.

Finished up more revisions to the Super-Secret Project and it's currently topped out at just under 43k. I'm picking back up the Space Opera which is about 1/4 of the way finished, but not all sequential so there's a lot of work to do to get it into readable shape. (Not just finishing up the rest of it, but piecing together what's already written too.)

Congrats to everyone who has stuck with it this year or is getting back into it. Y'all rock. :)
 

zanzjan

killin' all teh werds
Staff member
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
VPX
VPXI
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 5, 2010
Messages
9,728
Reaction score
3,208
Location
home home homityhomehome
Boo, flu sucks! Sorry Abby! Glad you're on the upswing. Also, welcome back Eliza.

End of the year coming up soon. Hopefully everyone has achievements to reminisce about, experiences to feel the wiser for, and new goals to conquer for the year ahead :)
 

Tamlyn

fish skeleton
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 18, 2014
Messages
1,467
Reaction score
812
Location
Australia
*waves*

W1S1 forum seems to have slowed a lot of late.

I've been giving myself a rest this December - October was so big editing wise and November writing wise I decided not to worry about goals and the like. I'm just doing bits and pieces here and there. It's relaxing.

I'm not sure I'm really moving forward at all. I don't have a lot of subs out atm, but the ones I have are all getting immediate passes still. My work just obviously isn't at pro level (or possibly even semi pro) or I'd at least be second rounding or something. I can't see it though (sure, some markets I look at and melt in envy knowing I will never write awesome stories like that, but others I look at and my stuff is at that level dammit. Which it obviously isn't or it'd be getting further in the sub process :tongue) so I guess I have to hope I'm improving where I can't see it.

Oh well. I'm in a mellow mood atm. I can deal with that. Tomorrow I may be bitter again (I just got a rejection, so I'd think it'd be the other way around, but nope.) Helps that life in general is being better now.
 

Batspan

My Religion is kindness -Dalai Lama
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 5, 2013
Messages
508
Reaction score
33
Location
California
Website
bathughes.wordpress.com
Congrats on the Nano slaying Brandon, and welcome back all.

My invitational sub got an R.

I wrote and published a few fiction eBooks under a different pen name as an experiment.

Found out today that all my eBooks, The Animals of London and the new series, have been pirated, some have two listings each. Spent the afternoon sending desist notices to the site and filing DMCAs. I found out because I have a Google Alert on my author names. They led me to General-eBooks.com. The site has all my Amazon listings and a big free download button that connects to another site for free downloads of my work.

I'm going to add a post in self-publishing with a couple useful URLs for dealing with this in case anyone else finds their work stolen.

2015 has to be better, right?
 

Brandon M Johnson

hard at work
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 29, 2013
Messages
343
Reaction score
53
Congrats on the Nano slaying Brandon, and welcome back all.

My invitational sub got an R.

I wrote and published a few fiction eBooks under a different pen name as an experiment.

Found out today that all my eBooks, The Animals of London and the new series, have been pirated, some have two listings each. Spent the afternoon sending desist notices to the site and filing DMCAs. I found out because I have a Google Alert on my author names. They led me to General-eBooks.com. The site has all my Amazon listings and a big free download button that connects to another site for free downloads of my work.

I'm going to add a post in self-publishing with a couple useful URLs for dealing with this in case anyone else finds their work stolen.

2015 has to be better, right?

Wow, that stinks. Hope you get that sorted out.

So, for my writing goals this year, I probably didn't get as much done as I wanted. But, I completed my serialized novella (see signature), joined Twitter (that was a big deal for me) and did NaNo this year in addition to experimenting with some shot realistic fiction, so I think I grew a lot as a writer. Now, I need to get some stories put together and get some subs back out for 2015.

Happy 2014 everyone! :partyguy: :partyguy:
 

Ty Schalter

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 27, 2014
Messages
257
Reaction score
20
I'm stillllllllllllll middling it at Apex (82 days since I submitted, 37 since they found my lost sub and re-assigned it, 33 since getting the EiC bump). Just today I subbed my newest to C.C. Finlay at F&SF, bringing my active subs to... two.

I've got a few stories that desperately need some love, but we're right in the thick of the football playoffs. I was hoping to have a couple sales and be well on my way to finishing a novel by now, so once football season ended I could revise, query, etc.

Instead, I'm just trying to find my best short work a home. Until I break through and prove that I can write a salable story, I just can't bring myself to craft a longform novel—or, honestly, spend hours and hours reworking stories that have collected four, five, six rejections or more. This may be the path to ultimate defeat, but it's the only one I feel I can take until we hit the offseason.

Peace
Ty
 

ACFantasy

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 31, 2013
Messages
385
Reaction score
30
So I figure that--it being the end of the year and all--it's probably a good time to take stock of how I did this year.

The statistics are:

I wrote 19 stories, in the area of 80,000 words.
I made a total of 68 submissions.
My submissions went to 21 different magazine markets and 8 different anthologies.
I got 57 rejections from those submissions.
Of those rejections, 3 reached the 2nd level, and 54 were rejected at the first level.
6 submissions are still pending.
I had 3 subs get eaten by technical issues.
I got 2 acceptances. Both were on their first submission. One paid 5c/word and one paid 5.5 c/word, so both are in that nebulous pro-semipro area (I think SFWA considers them semipro, since the rule is 6c/word now, but I was happy enough to make the sales anyway.)
So my acceptance rate was about 3.3% (not counting the submissions that were eaten by technical issues and the ones that haven't been answered yet).

I was doing pretty well with the 2 subs/month thing until the last three months of the year, which was when I was defending my PhD dissertation, wrapping up the thesis, and going job-hunting. So my fiction writing kind of fell by the wayside then. Hopefully I can be more consistent next year.

Next year I want to continue doing shorts. I'd love to crack some of the markets like Clarkesworld, DSF, F&SF, and Strange Horizons. Plus, I want to take aim at some anthologies like Long Hidden 2, and Apollo's Daughters 2 (if that funds). I also want to try writing a novel--I think that would be fun, and I think I'm a better writer now than I was when I began this project.
 
Last edited:

Gilead

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 2, 2009
Messages
78
Reaction score
13
I've done embarrassingly badly this last year as far as submissions go. I've only submitted one thing, and that was yesterday. I said I'd try to do a short story a week and then almost instantly got distracted.

Mind you, I have still written about 65,000 words of short fiction in 2014, which is about 60,000 words more than 2013, so it's a start. Even if most of it's in the form of unpublishable fragments.

The problem I had, I think, is that when I read some of the pro-paying fantasy markets I assumed I'd be going for, I realised that the sort of stories I like to read aren't usually published in those markets. In retrospect this explains why I was reading them for research purposes, rather than having already read them for fun.

I like secondary-world fantasy, and sometimes I like humour that operates consistently within a setting rather than going straight for the absurd or surreal punchline that breaks my suspension of disbelief. I like stories with vivid characters, fast-paced plots and twists at the end. Apparently those aren't really fashionable anymore.

While there are a few markets that publish that kind of story, mostly they aren't professional markets and they keep dying off. This was discouraging.

So in 2015 I'm going to scale back to writing one short story a month, which should make it more likely to happen. I'm also going to focus on writing stories that I personally like to read, and will experiment a bit with other genres (horror, mystery, etc) to see if my tastes there chime a bit more with what's actually published.
 

zanzjan

killin' all teh werds
Staff member
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
VPX
VPXI
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 5, 2010
Messages
9,728
Reaction score
3,208
Location
home home homityhomehome
Not my greatest year either, by a long shot. Breaking my leg last February was definitely a major disruption. You'd think sitting there for months on end with nothing to do would be a boon for writing, but no. Amazing how much energy goes into healing, even when you think you're ready to climb the walls.

Finished my novel, though, and sent it off to Potential Agent Dude, who liked it enough to not say no, but not quite enough to say yes. Spent much of the year figuring out how to fix the problems he (correctly) identified, and got it back to him late this year. Fingers crossed there.

Sold a couple of stories. Got a few things still out on sub. Several things sort of mid-progress, including a novella I expect to be done with in the next week or so.

This year's goals: finish this novella. Write another novel. Crack a market I haven't yet. Don't break my leg again. :)
 

Filigree

Mildly Disturbing
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 16, 2010
Messages
16,441
Reaction score
1,529
Location
between rising apes and falling angels
Website
www.cranehanabooks.com
I failed nearly all my writing goals in 2014. I'm hoping to do better this year. I have two shorts out from December subs. I just sent in a short to Crossed Genres. I'm trying to get a big fantasy novel and a contracted erotic romance finished. And I'm currently hacking away the last 5K extra from a novella I want to send in to F&SF.

But just now, I'm hoping for sleep.
 

Tamlyn

fish skeleton
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 18, 2014
Messages
1,467
Reaction score
812
Location
Australia
I think I'd get bitter if I think too much about my rejections. I did, however, write 270k words. A lot of that was novels, but there were also a bunch of short story drafts that have potential. This year I think my focus will be on editing those words.

I'd like to sell some more things too, but if I had control over that, I'd already have sold everything. For a million dollars.
 

ACFantasy

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 31, 2013
Messages
385
Reaction score
30
Went on a big resub spree today, and got 8 stories out the door. Hoping to send out a couple more that require a little more work to make them resubbable tomorrow.

Currently up to 11 stories out on submission.
 

zanzjan

killin' all teh werds
Staff member
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
VPX
VPXI
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 5, 2010
Messages
9,728
Reaction score
3,208
Location
home home homityhomehome
w00t, nice job, AC!

Well, my last two things out on sub (not counting the novel) from 2014 came back, one R, one not. I need to get more things out this year. Which means I need to write more things this year. It's like a vicious cycle!
 

Hapax Legomenon

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 28, 2007
Messages
22,289
Reaction score
1,491
Good Job AC!

I'm currently waiting on 3 things. One on the grinder is orange and another is almost orange. I'm guessing probably things slowed down because of the holiday... :/
 

Aislinn

Head down
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 19, 2013
Messages
461
Reaction score
40
Location
Sydney, Australia
I kind of wish things had slowed down over the break! I got 3 rejections while checking emails on my phone on holidays... But I also got a bio request for a story that was accepted almost a year ago, so that was good news (except for having to write the bio, which I hate!)
 

Aislinn

Head down
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 19, 2013
Messages
461
Reaction score
40
Location
Sydney, Australia
I like secondary-world fantasy, and sometimes I like humour that operates consistently within a setting rather than going straight for the absurd or surreal punchline that breaks my suspension of disbelief. I like stories with vivid characters, fast-paced plots and twists at the end. Apparently those aren't really fashionable anymore.

While there are a few markets that publish that kind of story, mostly they aren't professional markets and they keep dying off. This was discouraging.

So in 2015 I'm going to scale back to writing one short story a month, which should make it more likely to happen. I'm also going to focus on writing stories that I personally like to read, and will experiment a bit with other genres (horror, mystery, etc) to see if my tastes there chime a bit more with what's actually published.

What you like to read sounds like what I like to write and read. I also feel there's a fair bit of experimental fiction in some of the pro markets that doesn't always work for me, though I appreciate that the magazines are a valuable vehicle for work that pushes boundaries. But I've read so many novels recently that I have absolutely loved that part of me wonders if I shouldn't concentrate on writing novels because the market there is asking for more traditional stories. But writing short stories is great for a whole lot of other reasons, so I find myself in a bit of a dilemma.
 

Gilead

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 2, 2009
Messages
78
Reaction score
13
But I've read so many novels recently that I have absolutely loved that part of me wonders if I shouldn't concentrate on writing novels because the market there is asking for more traditional stories. But writing short stories is great for a whole lot of other reasons, so I find myself in a bit of a dilemma.

Certainly the standard advice seems to be that as short stories and novels are different enough that writing one won't necessarily help the other, focusing on novels if you're not really into short stories is probably more helpful.

But then I thought exactly the same thing last year, and:

a) When I stopped trying to write short stories I couldn't work up the enthusiasm for any particular novel idea, so I ended up writing nothing until I started back up on the short stories again.

b) I am into short stories, just apparently not the kind that get published in many of the well-known professional fantasy markets.

If I personally had a good idea for a novel, I'd work on that most of the time and every so often write a short story for a change of pace. As I currently don't, I'm writing short stories until I can work up a good novel idea. (Which may be made more difficult because as I'm writing short stories, I'm training my brain to generate ideas suited to short stories.)

It is a bit of a problem. But this way I'm at least writing stuff.
 

DarkSongofErrin

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 18, 2012
Messages
321
Reaction score
23
Location
Who knows
It's been pretty quiet lately. Have two short stories out one at about 18 days the other at only 6. And poems at three different markets which have all been out for a while. I find I usually wake up to rejections Monday mornings. So we'll see what tomorrow brings.
 

ACFantasy

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 31, 2013
Messages
385
Reaction score
30
1 rejection and 2 submissions put me back up to 14 currently out.
 

Aislinn

Head down
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 19, 2013
Messages
461
Reaction score
40
Location
Sydney, Australia
Certainly the standard advice seems to be that as short stories and novels are different enough that writing one won't necessarily help the other, focusing on novels if you're not really into short stories is probably more helpful.

But then I thought exactly the same thing last year, and:

a) When I stopped trying to write short stories I couldn't work up the enthusiasm for any particular novel idea, so I ended up writing nothing until I started back up on the short stories again.

b) I am into short stories, just apparently not the kind that get published in many of the well-known professional fantasy markets.

If I personally had a good idea for a novel, I'd work on that most of the time and every so often write a short story for a change of pace. As I currently don't, I'm writing short stories until I can work up a good novel idea. (Which may be made more difficult because as I'm writing short stories, I'm training my brain to generate ideas suited to short stories.)

It is a bit of a problem. But this way I'm at least writing stuff.

I've been in the same situation and concluded, like you, that overall it's best to keep writing stuff. My problem is that I like to first-draft in a blur from start to finish - which isn't possible with a novel for me at the moment (young kids at home.) There are plenty of writers who've written short stories first and then moved on to novels...Carol Shields was even more minimalist, and wrote only poetry while her children were young! It might be good to concentrate on those supportive examples while we continue to churn out our short-stories-of-dubious-commercial-value. ;)