A Week of Writing: 4/2/18 to 4/8/18
Another week has come and gone, and here are my writing triumphs and failures laid bare for your amusement and edification.
The Novel
So, uh, yeah, I’m like writing this horror novel with a desired goal of 15,000 words a week and a minimum goal of 10,000 words. Well, friends, I didn’t hit either of those numbers, and this week was, to put it bluntly, pretty much shit for novel production. Behold my shame.
| Date | Day | Words Written |
| 4/2/2018 | Monday | 0 |
| 4/3/2018 | Tuesday | 0 |
| 4/4/2018 | Wednesday | 0 |
| 4/5/2018 | Thursday | 2519 |
| 4/6/2018 | Friday | 0 |
| 4/7/2018 | Saturday | 0 |
| 4/8/2018 | Sunday | 577 |
Yep, I managed only 3,096 words on the novel this week. Not great, but still positive yardage, and I did figure out a few tangled plot points that’ll make the writing easier from here on out. I shall do better this week.
Short Stories
Okay, kind of got my shit together here, especially compared to my epic failure on the novel. I finished the revisions on three stories, one of which is a tale called “Teeth of the Lion Man.” I’m pretty excited about that one because I’ve been laboring on the damn thing for like four years. I spruced up a few other stories that had been hanging around, and I’m generally happy with the results.
Submissions
Last week was a very good week for submissions, both in volume and responses.
- Submissions Sent: 6
- Rejections: 2
- Acceptances: 1
I currently have fourteen submissions under consideration.
| Story | Date Sent | Days Out | Avg Response |
| Caroline1 | 6/24/2017 | 289 | 263 |
| A Small Evil | 11/9/2017 | 151 | 72 |
| The Scars You Keep | 1/7/2018 | 92 | 123 |
| When the Lights Go On2 | 1/25/2018 | 74 | 45 |
| Bites | 2/8/2018 | 60 | |
| Old as the Trees | 2/28/2018 | 40 | 24 |
| What Kind of Hero | 3/24/2018 | 16 | 105 |
| Two Legs | 3/26/2018 | 14 | 32 |
| Scar | 3/29/2018 | 11 | 40 |
| Burning Man | 4/3/2018 | 6 | |
| Red Season | 4/3/2018 | 6 | |
| Teeth of the Lion Man | 4/8/2018 | 1 | 5 |
| The Inside People | 4/8/2018 | 1 | 10 |
| A Point of Honor | 4/8/2018 | 1 | 15 |
- Reprint
- Shortlisted
I received responses on two of the stories that had been in that 45- to 75-day range: one rejection and one acceptance. I can’t talk about the acceptance just yet, but it’s a good one (I mean, they’re all good), and I’m pretty excited about it. Some of the new submissions I sent out are to markets that are generally speedy, so I would expect to heat back from them this week.
Goals
This week I aim to get back on track with the novel, but I’m not gonna set some lofty goal of 15,000 words or more to catch up. Instead, I’ll set my sights on a humble 10,000 words and get delusional about my production again on the following week. I do have one deadline looming I need to hit, an outline for a game design project. Since I never miss deadlines (true story), I’ll be knocking that out this week.
Story Spotlight
This week, I’d like you to head on out to The Arcanist, and check out my latest story, “The Food Bank,” published on on 4/6. It’s your typical post-apocalyptic horror flash fiction about giant bugs. 🙂
Read “The Food Bank“
2 Comments on “A Week of Writing: 4/2/18 to 4/8/18”
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Aeryn Rudel's Rejectomancy 
Hi Aeryn, really enjoyed The Food Bank. I always thought the Praying Mantis was truly the most evil of bugs.. I like that you haven’t tried to explain why the bugs are big and why eating them doesn’t solve the food problem for your characters because you don’t need to, great story regardless!
Thanks, Rebecca. Much appreciated. 🙂