A Week of Writing: 2/11/19 to 2/17/19
Yikes. How did it get to be Wednesday already. A little late with this update, but here’s my writing week that was.
Words to Write By
This week’s quotes comes from Sylvia Plath.
“I love my rejection slips. They show me I try.”
– Sylvia Plath
I’ve been in a bit of an acceptance drought to start the year, and the rejections have been piling up. Despite my admittedly thick hide, when rejections attack en masse they can wear me down. So, when that happens, and I feel like I’ll never sell a story again, I often read quotes about rejection from famous authors. This one is short and sweet and right on the money. Rejections are nos, certainly, but they’re meaning is greater than that. Like Sylvia Plath says, they say you tried, you put your work out there, and braved the literary minefields. Of course, if you follow this blog, then you know I think a lot of publishing is a numbers game. The more you submit (try), the greater your chances of acceptance, so it helps to think of each rejection as laying down another bit of road that will eventually lead to the next publication.
The Novel
I’ve started the next revision for Late Risers based on the notes from my agent. This time I’m going about things in a much more surgical manner. First off, I created a spread sheet that lists each chapter with a short summary of its content. That way I can treat the book kind of like a puzzle or maybe a delicately balanced Jenga tower. I can move or remove chapters and add in the new ones my agent requested. It’s been very helpful to view the novel this way, and it feels a lot less overwhelming. The first new thing I’ll write is the prologue, mostly because I know exactly what I need to do there, and the action in that bit will inform the rest of the novel. That said, this project is on temporary hold while I write the next piece of Stormbreak for Privateer Press.
Short Stories
This week was much more active than weeks prior.
- Submissions Sent: 4
- Rejections: 5
- Acceptances: 1
- Publications: 1
- Shortlist: 0
The 4 submissions last week give me 6 for the month and 15 for the year. That puts me a bit off my pace for the 100 submissions I want to hit by the end of the year. I’m not too worried about that, though. I’ll get a few more subs out in the next week to get back on pace. Five rejections this week, and they were a little tougher than usual, mostly because I thought I had a pretty good shot with a couple of them. That’s almost always a mistake, and as hard it can be sometimes, I find it best to treat each submission like an eventual rejection, and then just treat each acceptance like a wonderful surprise.
The Blog
Two blog posts last week.
2/11/19: A Week of Writing: 2/4/18 to 2/10/18
The usual (if not timely) weekly writing update.
2/15/19: The Rejection Archives: Rejection #7
The second entry into my Rejection Archives series. This one covers a detailed personal rejection.
Goals
This week and next I need to bang out the words on the next Privateer Press novella. As usual, I’m shooting for something between 2,000 and 3,000 words per day, and the first draft should go very quick. Looking forward to it, and it’s always a good time taking another trip to the Iron Kingdoms.
Story Spotlight
I did manage to publish a story last week with Mystery Tribune. This is a reprint flash fiction story called “The Father of Terror.” It was originally published by The Molotov Cocktail, where it took second place in their Flash Icon contest. I made some very minor changes to this version of the story, but it’s still 95% the same story Molotov published. You can read “The Father of Terror” by clicking the link below
“The Father of Terror”
How was your writing week? Tell me about it in the comments.
One Comment on “A Week of Writing: 2/11/19 to 2/17/19”
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Aeryn Rudel's Rejectomancy 
Happy editing on Late Risers. I’ve loved the snippets I’ve seen. YES to the spreadsheet. That’s a trick I learned from one of my workshops and I love it, though mine is by plot point rather than by chapter, as I’m trying to close chapters on hooks and usually the plot points end mid-chapter.