The W1S1 Check-in and Chill Lounge and Bar

I agree with Sarah. They're crazy busy and they DON'T lose stuff often, so give them a couple of days and then a gentle nudge on Twitter wouldn't be inappropriate.

Blargh. The current short is unraveling before my very eyes-- I got halfway in and started to realize the premise was not nearly as clever as I thought it was. Plus the amount of research I'd need to do to make it really vivid seems excessive for a short. I'm going to back off for a few days and see if I can come up with a way to salvage it.

I sent out my 50th submission tonight. I can't believe how much writing I've done this year. I haven't sold anything yet, but I'm really really trying.

Gettingby, your submission rate sounds great, and writing so many stories must be helping your writing. I take a long time to get stories to the point where I'll submit them, but I console myself with the fact that at least I do finish them.

I thought I'd get no writing done this week, since the kids are on school holidays, but today, while I was driving them home from visiting their grandmother, with my mind on autopilot, an idea appeared that I really liked for a new story. (Autopilot activities really work for me, in terms of solving problems or getting ideas.)

I've put the fragments of the idea into Scrivener (which I love using). Maybe they can simmer at the back of my subconscious mind while I do jobs that must be done. Anyway - a new story idea arriving unasked for - makes me pretty happy even if I don't get much written this week.

Yippee! July story done in one day! (Well, first draft anyway).

I rarely get up at night to write down ideas, no matter how much I like them, but had an odd 3:am inspiration that turned into a couple of paragraphs in my head and finally I had to get up and jot it down. Turned it into a flash piece today that I'm very pleased with. Gotta say -- W1S1 was an inspiration for me to get that on paper in the middle of the night and I'm glad I did.

Is there a website I can visit for writing prompts? Better yet, can anyone give me one, lol? I'm having writer's block on my short story and I need to switch for a while.

Arcadia, just stare out your window at something, put your pen on the page and start free writing using the first man-made sound you hear as your prompt. You are not allowed to let your pen stop moving for at least ten minutes. Maybe that won't help, but you asked.

Or: Open a book and use the first five words of the first full sentence on page twenty as the start of your writing. Write for five minutes. Do the same from page forty, then sixty, then eighty, then one hundred. They don't have to be about the same things. When you are done, write a link between items four and five. You can't let your pen leave the page until each five minutes is up.

Or: Write a scene containing dialogue between two characters. There is a dead body somewhere in the scene with them. They are not allowed to mention the body.

Hope your writers block ends soon. Maybe you actually need a break for a bit.

Arcadia Divine said:

Is there a website I can visit for writing prompts? Better yet, can anyone give me one, lol? I'm having writer's block on my short story and I need to switch for a while.

Click to expand...

Try writing for a themed submission: Penumbra, Wiley Writers, themed anthology contest, etc. Maybe one of the themes will inspire you.

I just now remembered that the flash fiction section has prompts. I used that for inspiration.

Izz said:

Big congrats to zanzjan, who's now a full SFWA member.

Click to expand...

WooHoo! Way to go!

Congrats! That's great news!

Wow. Mega-huge congrats, zanjan!

...btw, where is she?

Congrats!!!!! Woohoo!!!!!

Welcome back, Suzanne, and congratulations!

Sorry about the rough time you have of moving. This, too, shall pass and you'll be back to writing awesome stories and selling them to Asimov's soon

I have gotten around a paragraph a day, sigh. I also recently moved (And it SUCKS so much. So very very much. So very very very much. Aren't I descriptive?) and got a new job, le sigh, that's busy now and will only get busier once the REAL part of my job gets underway.

Congrats on SFWA Zanz, and moving!

Hope you guys both are settled into your new places now! And congrats on sfwa suzanne that's so exciting!

so, uhm, *cough*, it's been awhile since I popped in here. in fact, i forgot my password and was uber lazy about resetting it until I heard about #awritein on twitter the other day. I've been writing but only have submitted ONE story for the whole year so far. But it made it through the first round in contest I subbed to so am waiting. I took a creative writing class last semester and got a few flash pieces out of it. Need to get organized.

How's everyone doing?

Wow. It is so calming for me to hear that other people watch their Duotrope pages voraciously. Sometimes, I think a publisher will respond if I refresh the page often enough...

On that note, who has experience with Abyss & Apex? Specifically poetry? I had a personal rejection in March from Stephen M. Wilson, the editor, who gave positive feedback. While he liked it, it wasn't the right aesthetic for A&A. He suggested I submit something new during their March submission period; I did.

Two poems have been with A&A for 147 days now. I queried two weeks ago, but haven't heard anything. Particularly odd is that they've changed publishing schedules since I sent the work. They now only accept work during June and December. What happened? I've been searching and can't figure it out! I have emails from March inviting me to submit again, during March. Duotrope doesn't show any responses since March 15, with 11 subs waiting, and an average of 155.5 days per poem acceptance.

So, so nervous... the crickets are killing me...

And, apologies, I don't know where else to put this. It's a fiction board, but there are few W1S1 poets out there and no poetry boards. I figured folks would be familiar with A&A from fiction subs.

*deep sigh of relief* Okay, I feel better now...

Thanks, Izz. Good luck!!

And, oy, I just followed your link...love your blog! I've been reading it for a few weeks now. Great updates.