Writing: For Better or For Worse

Sometimes life gets in the way of writing, getting a divorce certainly doesn't help matters all that much.  But that's officially done end of the month.  Reading my previous post I thought, that was a good post, a good concept to show the real score when trying to get published.  Maybe I should try to keep up with that again.  But I know I won't.  If you're reading this, you're in a small class of 14 people.

But MAYBE, maybe you picked up this blog through my most recent published story, "The Delivery" in the pages of Dogwood Magazine.  And MAYBE you're like the 250th person to now follow my blog.  Or maybe not.  See what I just did there?  A writer never loses hope.  It's cancerous really.  The publication came at a perfectly needed time--I got the email of acceptance after leaving my attorney's office.  The publication came at a time I was considering taking serious time off of writing.  Having received the acceptance seemed to crack the door open again.  An acceptance of 1, wipes clean rejection of 100.  That was a month ago.  I still haven't resumed writing but know now that I will.  End of this month. 

Although that previous post was a good idea, it's not really a good idea.  It's not good to dwell on the failures.  I decided to write and put my stuff out there and for better or worse (like the vows that didn't work out well for me) it is what it is.  I'm to expect rejection and quit being a sissy about it.  I'm thankful for Dogwood's publishing my favorite short story I've written.  But most of all, I'm thankful for a shot in the arm when it was needed.  Driving home from work the other day and having my mind race through a prospective story once again was exhilarating. 

So I'm back, soon.

Updated Submission Score

As I finished my last post, ironically enough, another submission tally came in (a rejection).  Since then, I've submitted to four other magazines taking my total submissions to 64.  I'll keep my ongoing score in a simple manner.  Thus far, I am:

 1 for 64.

I'd like to include sample chapters requested for my novel in my success tally but just don't feel right about doing so.  As such, the rule will be:  if sample chapters are requested, sent, and the complete manuscript is then requested, I'm counting it as a positive.  That's quite a hurdle to clear.  Plus, I need positive numbers. 

On Tuesday I returned about 12 submissions that I had been reading for Quiddity.  Of those, one was a yes for me.  Immedietly after leaving the campus I went to the post office to mail off my four submissions.  Hmm.

An Open Book

For the first time in months, I'm visiting my blog and posting something new.  This is for three reasons.  No, four:  1.  I finished The Indwelling.  2.  I'm trying to not be lazy about this.  3.  I have an idea.  4.  I'm sitting here stalling off submitting. 

Which brings me to my idea.  I always meant this blog to be an honest glimpse into the proces of trying to become a published novelist.  This includes building up my writing resume by submitting not only my novels (The Indwelling and Honor Thy Mother), but also my short stories.  My intention now is to show, quite embarrassingly honestly, my failures alongside my successes.  Ever seen the film There Will Be Blood?  There will be blood.  Massive failure.  Previously, I've displayed my failures but tried to balance it out with a nugget here and there of success.  Sometimes, I had to scratch the bottom of my morale barrel to do so.  I'll still show success, small victories when I have them but am now going to give a true depiction of trying to get published.  Let's get started:

Submitted to two magazine and logged them last night.  I aim to submit to several today as well as shooting a few query letters out for Honor.  I log my submissions.  Since I started doing so in November of 2010, the score so far for 60 submissions is:  21 Rejections, 26 Awaiting Decision, 3 Prizes, 2 Writing Samples Requested (then subsequently rejected), 1 We Really Like Your Novel But Were Shutting Down, 1 Automatic Bounce Back Email as UNDELIVERABLE, 1 Out of Business, 1 Rejected Conflict of Interest (I started reading for the magazine), 2 Mysterious Results Pending (I believe I was being strung along by this publishers first line reader), 2 misc.

Here we go!    

Peeling Back the Curtain

If you can't beat 'em join em.  I'm excited to say that I get to explore another aapect of getting published--reading submissions.  Today, I read my first set of submissions for Quiddity magazine.  It was pretty cool to read a cover letter from a prospective writer and see what THEY see when they read my letters.  I'm hoping this helps me refine my writing a bit.

--Reached the halfway point in The Indwelling!  At least, I think it's the halfway point.  I'm at a crucial spot in the novel, guess it's the turning point.  The protagonist has changed and the rest of the novel is laid out. 

--cut 200 more words from Honor Thy Mother!  Looking forward to finishing my cutting so I can get to editing one of my horror short stories.  It's been awhile since I read "Tom Ford, the Girl, and Rejection."  I'm disappointed with the word count >5000, which could make it a hard place.  I'm sure I've rambled on with my words.  It'll be interesting to take a look at it after a couple of months.  I thought it was hot shit back then.  It's probably cold shit now, the kind of doodie that a dog lets then it turns white out in your yard after a while.

--this week, writing is good.

HATE

You know what I really hate?  Steak & Shake commercials with the talking hat AND, especially, when you waste time researching a magazine to submit to, write a specific cover letter to them, then submit to them, per their super-special qualifications, only to send it electronically and have a delivery failure--on their end.  Nice.  I'm expected to notify you if something I've submitted elsewhere and at your magazine but you're not responsible for noting that your magazine is dead?  Loo, there's too many mags out there to be wasting my time with yours if you can't be responsible.  Thanks magazine _________ for wasting my time this evening.  The worst to you in the future.

As seen and heard by others...

--Why is it that you can sit at a table at lunch when others are busy reading newspaper, books, etc. and sit there quietly and uninterrupted. Pull out that laptop however and begin writing and everyone wants to talk to you? Seriously, as I type this, I’m being talked to. I’m still typing. He’s still talking. Seriously? I’m getting about 5% of the story. Now my phone is ringing. Just got off the phone and here he goes again! Now I’m hearing about the calories in McDonald’s food.


--Really? Got a rejection letter from an agent who liked my query and had requested fifty pages. The return letter, although not a form letter, said that she liked it. But it’s not for her. Said she enjoyed it. But it’s not a good fit. Really? Tonight, I submit.

Rejection, then Acceptance, of a sort

Yesterday morning I awoke to a rejection for Honor Thy Mother.  Good Morning!  I told myself, as I normally do, that this is nothing to be alarmed with.  But this one bothered me.  A lot.  I had met with the them two weeks before, gotten on well--seemed like a good pairing.  But in the end the writing wasn't good enough.  Apparently.  It rattled me bad to get rejected.  I never believed they would publish me though, not really.  I simply wanted to set a framework for the future, make connections, feel like a writer.  And for two days at the conference I did.  It's more the nature of the rejection that hit me--the typical form letter.  I had felt...something above this I guess.  Consider it a lesson learned.  1. this is a reminder that it's a business based on skill, luck, timing, and personal preference.  I stand by my novel. That being said, I've decided to continue cutting the novel down.  By lunch, I decided to continue writing on The Indwelling.  By bedtime I received some fruit of my labor when I received an invite to be on the masthead of a local lit magazine called "Quiddity".  Ironically, they'd turned down a story of mine that was later published by another mag.  And now I'm reading for them.  My day was like a decent little story.  It started in the middle of something and looped back to the beginning. 

I'm past the 99000 word mark on HTM and over the 25000 word mark on Indwelling.  Have an idea for a meta-fiction short story, my last meta was published as referenced above, and have my settled on what my next novel will be--the revamping of my first book ever written but hidden away for years called, over- dramatically enough, Forevermore.