A Writer's Paradise

Getting Beyond Competent

One of the things I am concentrating on lately (this year, this era, whatever) is getting beyond merely competent writing.

I not infrequently stumble across random blog or community posts from writers who are throwing up their hands and wailing "Why? WHY can't I sell?" About 9 times out of 10, I don't really wonder why the writer isn't selling, actually. And in part, that's because I have seen enough unpublished stories in slush and in workshops to know what sort of things are out there.

There is a vast amount of competent writing out there. If you cut out the loons, the no-talents, the people writing in crayon, and the ones who don't actually write what we commonly agree to call English, you're left with a large collection of competence. Mediocre competence.

This is no revelation to anyone, I suspect. What might be a revelation is that I'm quite well aware that most of the time I'm merely competent. Sometimes I don't realize it until after the fact. Most of the time, it's bloody obvious: just compare the vision in my head and the version on the paper, and my mere competence becomes apparent.

Now, mind you, I don't actually know how to surpass myself--I mean, I don't have any formal plan of attack here--but I thought that I'd start with a little public self-critique.

Tomorrow, sans commentary, I'm going to post a recently rejected story ("Souls on a String"), then later, a few of the comments from the rejections I've gotten for it, and eventually my own analysis (from years post-writing) of what's really gone wrong with the story. I hope that I'll learn something from the exercise. I'm doing it publically because I'm hoping that if you learn something, too, you'll share it with me. (Ha! And that's how I got the internet to do my homework for me.)

Rejections and Revelations

Got a nice rejection on "Souls on a String." I think I'm going to have to retire the story, unless I can think of another market I respect who might be interested. The story isn't a great fit for a lot of mags. I believe this was the one that Asimov's called "too elliptical" which has become a running joke around our house. I am very often too ellpitical.

In other news, I have revisited my big plan to write a whack of short stories this summer. Mostly because there is one currently stuck crosswise in my head, and won't come out. I sort of remembered today, while floating in the lake with Julie that at some point in the not-so-distant past I said I was giving up on short stories because it wasn't my natural writing length. And somehow... I forgot this?

The other thing that became clear to me about short stories this weekend, too, was that I

1) don't like having such a short period of time to connect with the characters. I believe that's pretty self-explanatory.

2) have learned pretty much all I can learn right now from writing short stories--someday, I'll need to learn something else from the process, but for now, it's stalled. Or plateaued. Granted, I don't write to learn something, but when I've already got a whack-load of other reasons to be tired of short stories, I can't think why, when I don't even have that reason in play, to keep lumbering on.

Of course, if I get mugged by a short story, I get mugged by one. But really, I want to be writing my novels, and I was supposed to be, but I got very, very distracted somewhere along the way....

Finally, I did get the galleys done for "An Almanac for the Alien Invaders," which looks very fetching in page-proof form, I must say. The Asimov's font with the title and my name... guh. Sex-ay. Of course, I say this now, after the galley-nausea has abated. I buckled down and read through the story and even found a few typos and dropped words, and corrected some things that needed correcting (capital e in Earth, frex), and then, Elizabeth proofread it, too, and found two dropped words, and now I think I owe her dinner, because I feel about three hundred times better now.

So.

Here I are.

Oh, and here's where I kayaked today:



I thought at the time that it wasn't as far as normal, and I see now that it wasn't. I was thrown off my game by starting late (too much wind-wave action, and boater-wave action), and my new gloves kept my hands from hurting so I had a rather difficult time knowing how long I'd been out. Apparently, aching hands was a metric I understood rather well!

The Lake!

Here we are, Elizabeth Shack, David Klecha, Julie Winningham, and I, hanging out at the lake for a impromptu (is it impromptu if there's six months notice?) writing weekend. I say impromptu because anything that's not our fall retreat doesn't count as planned, I guess. Plus, in the summer, there's more to do than shiver and write.

Julie and I had a peaceful drive out, and jumped in the lake about as soon as we got here. We swam in a pink sunset. I watered plants and put out food for the ducks and rabbits and squirrels. The others showed up.

And, other than the neighbors inviting us over for a cook-out breakfast in the morning, not much else has occurred. I'm not sure any writing has happened yet. I did look at two pages of the Asimov's story, and I corrected my name before putting it away.

I'm not really sure what else I can do to procrastinate here. Other than actually do some writing.

Hm.

I could play Peggle.

ETA: We may not have written much anything yet, but we are not drunk.

Galley proofs

Got some galleys from that there Asimov's magazine.

Now I just have to summon up the ability to read through the story again without, y'know, barfing.

Some people I know feel that selling a story is a huge validation and they lovingly read and re-read the work after an acceptance, gloating over their brilliance.

That would not be me.

I might re-read the acceptance letter for validation, but the story, the one that's going to go out there and be seen? That's the big chance for the world to learn of my fraudulence.

I have not ever actually yet re-read anything I've published once it's been published (with the possible exception of "Shotgun," but that story is only 187 words long). Getting through galleys has been, until now, bearable because I know it's my last chance to make sure embarrassing things don't slip through, but, now, ugh. There's just too much exposure in Asimov's!

Well.

The good news is that I possess a modicum of professionalism and will be looking at the galleys soon. The bad news is, I'm going to have to work myself up to do it.

Oh, noes!

I don't seem to have a copy of my revised version of "Lawncare in the Afterlife"--this is very almost nearly something like a tragedy!

There is the teeniest, tiniest chance that there's a copy on my work computer--and I'm holding out hope that this is the case--but the three copies I have on hand, including the so-called backup, are old drafts.

More than likely, I deleted the wrong file when I was cleaning things up.

Just goes to show you that you can have all the backup strategies you want, but you still won't be able to avoid human error.

Out of clever rejection entry titles; this is mostly about books anyway.

Speedy JJA reject from F&SF on Friday... Three rejections in seven days! It's not a record by any means, but after weeks of no mail, it's odd.

So. Books.

(30) The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown [non-fiction; biography]

Hm. This biography--which may actually have been more like a recitation of press events coupled with some insider dish than a true biography, it's hard to say--was an enlightening chronicle (exactly as its title says) of a public life that I only barely registered while it was being lived. I remember, with a kindergartener's bile, the pre-emption of my cartoons for the royal wedding in 1981. I always liked Fergie and her red hair better than Diana while I was growing up, but there's nothing quite like untimely death to get my attention. The greatest enjoyment I got out of the book was probably the look at how the monarchy functions today, and some interesting statements about the balance of power versus the display of power.

(31) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire [fantasy]
(32) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix [fantasy]
(33) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince [fantasy]

My first reads on these three (obviously by J.K. Rowling). I liked Goblet well enough, thought Phoenix dragged a lot at the start, but Half-Blood Prince really worked for me, as I felt that wise, competent, practically-adult Harry is a guy who I'd really be able to get behind if he were, you know, leading a magical army that I might want to join.

I am not a mega-fan of this series--I have no wish to immerse myself into HP fandom, for example, and no desire to find or write fic. (I might watch a vid or two, but that's different.) But I can't understand the detractors of this series--at least, not the ones who've read it. I completely understand not wanting to jump on the bandwagon. I just don't know why you'd bother reading all of them if you aren't somewhat moved by the characters or the situations, and then rant on about the small, sentence-level mundanities in the writing. Obviously, these books aren't about the writing. Not the style, not the voice, not the prose itself. The best thing Rowling does is to not allow style/voice/prose to get in the way of her strengths, which are many. The books are about the story, the struggle, the conflict. And that's enough, isn't it?

Now, I must twiddle my thumbs until my book 7 copy gets here from Britain. Sigh.

Rejectio!

And a rejection flew into her hand.

A 62-day rejection from Strange Horizons. The second rejection from Jed lately in which he said he really liked the ending. This is a bonus. I was sucking at endings for a long time. Of course, the beginning is bloatated (is too a word).

Sadly, I agree.

Sadly, I knew this before I sent it.

Sadly, I just don't know HOW to fix it, because the story is this one way in my head, and it takes me (on average) about four years to forget how things are in my head and let the story rework itself properly for paper.

I might have to let this one stew for a while.

et in rejectia, ego

Speedy 78-day rejection from Asimov's. The remaining novella market is looking pretty slim, especially for comic-romantic speculative fiction novellas. Er, novellettes, I mean. (Too many categories and not enough meaning in their differentiation, in my opinion.)

If only the CatScratch Gothic SF anthology had a sister "space opera of manners" anthology....

I think I'll try Andromeda Spaceways next.

Passing Along the Meme

Bluevervain passes along (or actually, invents, I think), this meme. Exercise, really.

1) Think of a type of story you want to tell.

2) Choose an album to mine for ideas.

3) Listen to the album and try to pull an idea from each track; a character, a color, a setting, something that you want to see happen, a mood, anything.

I've been noshing on a fantasy story (the sort I mean when I say things like "It doesn't seem right that I'm not writing any books about elves") lately. Something that harks back to my days as an RPG player. Something with the scope and depth of an Amber Diceless game. If I were going to write something like that, I would totally want to mine The Tea Party's Edge of Twilight.

I think I'll end up doing this exercise a couple times soon, but I probably won't publish the results. It was too cool an idea not to share, though.

Lobbing those Turnips

Sent out "The Girl-Prince" last night. I was going to speculate on what sort of Alas-o-gram I might get, but that felt too depressing. Must continue to live in a happy bubble of possibility as long as possible, no?

I did manage to smooth it down from 7,300 to 6,900 words. This felt like an accomplishment--breaking the psychological 7k barrier.

Oh, the lying stories and the lying writers who write them.... I mean, this is how the conversation went when we first met:

"The Girl-Prince": I am an interesting idea. You are a comely writer. Wanna snog?
Merrie Haskell: Er, sure. You know I have no attention span, though, right?
TGP: It's cool. You'll finish me in two nights. Call me a two-night stand, if you will. Haha. No, I promise--I'll come in under 4k.
MH: Well. You are kind of cute. And your first paragraphs basically mugged me already--look, there they are, on note-paper. I never write anything in longhand anymore, and yet... you've moved me.
TGP: Cool beans.

Then, two weeks later:

TGP: I'm late.
MH: That's impossible! You SWORE that you were going to come under 4k.
TGP: I don't know how it happened... the signs are all there, though. You're cranky, I'm bloated, my beginning is tender, and my denouement is missing in action.
MH: You're at 5,000 words. Maybe you'll be done in another 500 and then we can cut 1k off in the rewrite--
TGP: You're in denial, babe.

It's been tough, but we got there.

Independence Week Book List

(26) Regency House Party by Lucy Jago [non-fiction]

A tie-in with the television show, this is a great, comprehensive guide to the Regency, plus a primer on what it would be like to time travel backward to about 1810 Britain or so. Super. There's even a fantastic chapter on race relations. Or at least, the beginnings of one (the author could only do so much and keep up with the show at the same time).

(27) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
(28) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
(29) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

by JK Rowling, all [fantasy]

These were re-reads, and just as engrossing as ever. I remembered book 1 perfectly (I may've read it twice before, anyway); book 2 less so, and book 3 just barely. I do not think this is because the movies diverge from the books increasingly as they go on, but I might just want to lie to myself.

Anyway. I liked Azkaban better this time; I may very well have read it with my eyes closed or something the first time. Hard to say.

I did read the British versions, for what that's worth (a few u's and the use of the word "queuing" and at least one puzzled moment of "What did Fred say there?"--mainly).

I'm on to the next three. It'll be my first time through them. And then I get to wait, along with everyone else, I guess--the goal was to read Phoenix before seeing the movie, because I didn't like how that turned out with Goblet as much. Likewise, I wanted to be caught up by the time the last book came out. It's been a harrowing month, trying to assess the timing.

Triage

From Steve Palina's 33 Rules to Boost Your Productivity (vol. 2):

#21: Triage. Save the lives of your important projects by killing those that are going to die anyway.

Sounds more like euthanasia than triage, but it's an interesting idea to apply to writing--if you're like me and you have trouble focusing on just one project at a time.

For those of you who don't have that problem, move along. There's nothing to see here.

A Highly Personalized Checklist

Recent To-Do List Items:

1. Finish Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - Check

2. Kayak. Here's the route I took on Monday:


I paddled extremely hard to make it across the wide expanse of the lake quickly, before someone came and waterskied over my head. Also, the map lies a bit, and interprets a small island as a peninsula; I didn't portage at all, I just glided over some very shallow water.

Today, this was my route:



It was an easier paddle, being shorter, and less... ominous by not crossing a well-used thorough-fare, so I paddled slower. I haven't mapped my Sunday route yet, or come up with what I want to do tomorrow (or Saturday--my husband says I should take a day off in between jaunts and do something else to maximize the exercise pay-off.... but I am doing this for pleasure as much as anything, so maybe I will go tomorrow and Saturday both).

Er. Check.

3. Write 1000 words.

I laid down about 2k of novel today, actually. So. Check.

4. Play with nieceling and nephling. Check.

5. Apologize profusely to Todd Wheeler for even mentioning Peggle. (The apology is implicit in this item, yes, Todd? Okay, then... Check.)

6. Update Duotrope with my latest rejection and (oops) my latest submission, which is now a week old. Check.

I think I'm done for the day. (Phew.)

Rejection Junction

Today, a rejection from Interzone. I am actually this close (makes small space with finger) from giving up on that story, but I won't. For one thing, I haven't tried ten markets yet. (If ten is even my new minimum, which it might not be.) For another, Jetse essentially gave me a valuable critique on the story with the rejection--and while I do have a rule about not rewriting in between submissions, I'm wondering if this isn't one of those times where I should break the rule 'cause--well--Jetse's crit feels right.

(Okay, "critique" is not actually the right word. But he did explain why he was rejecting it, and at length.)

Anyway. Bleah. No, I don't have time for a rewrite. So. This is where I ask myself if I sit on it for a while, or if I send it to the next market sans rewrite. Actually, since I'm asking myself this question in public, I think I know the answer--while I should be a good role model and send the story out, I'd hate for an editor to stumble onto this someday and wonder why I was sending out what I know to be subpar work.

Oh, the dilemma! (*makes gestures of woe and dismay*)

Peggle, I curse thee

So, here I am at the lake.

(Insert pretty pictures of the lake and cottage.)

Looks idyllic, doesn't it? The idyll does not take into account the two adorable small fry (my niece and nephew) that have pretty much taken over the cottage--and all my brainpower.

In theory, I'm retiring to the silence (relative silence) of the bedroom to write. Only, I've done that maybe twice, and I've managed around a thousand words, mebbe a few more.

Far worse than the adorable distraction, however, is the Peggle (no, no link; I don't hate you all that much) game that I've been playing for hours. And hours. And hours. Two days now. Two days too many. I've pretty much been able to avoid the various Law and Order reruns and the other TV-related distractions (the cottage now has HBO and Cinemax. Uh-oh.), though honestly, since this is vacation, I have scheduled mini-golf and kayaking and napping to work around anyway. It's a delicate balance, vacation is.

So. No more Peggle. Finish the rewrite of "The Girl-Prince." Write a coherent draft of my as-yet-unnamed story.

(Sidebar--possible titles:

Twelve Fallen Leaves
Springtide on Neptune
The Darker Veil
Call Me Iphigenia
The Ships of Triton Wait

None of them quite work yet. We'll see what feels right at the end of Draft 1.)

And in the meantime, plenty of kayaking, cuddling my niece, and mini-golf with my nephew. And some croquet with my stepdaughter, and swimming with my husband... and tomorrow I'll go take mental notes at the Point's July 4th Ladies' Auxiliary Party with Bloody Mary in hand. (I'm writing a science fictional Gothic romance story, (and so should you) after all; a Ladies' Auxiliary complete with Bloody Marys seems like more than adequate preparation.)

I'll return when I have some progress to report...