Weeks of Writing: 7/26/21 to 8/8/21

A couple of productive weeks of writing and submitting. Let’s see how I did.

Words to Write By

This week’s quote comes from Mark Twain.

“It takes a heap of sense to write good nonsense.”

—Mark Twain

I think this quote is particularly important for speculative fiction writers because we tend to write thing that are not only not true but not even remotely possible. In order to get your readers to buy into a vampire that plays baseball, for example, you gotta build the world around that vampire in a way that doesn’t make the reader go, “Well, this is some bullshit right here.” Essentially, everything in your world has to ring true and authentic so when that bloodsucker steps up to the plate, it adds an element of wonder or terror but the sheer nonsense of it all doesn’t bring the entire story tumbling down. So, I think what Mark Twain is saying here is your world needs to make sense so the nonsense makes sense too. I think. 🙂

Short Story Submissions

A very good couple of weeks in submission land.

• Submissions Sent: 7
• Rejections: 3
• Acceptances: 0
• Publications: 0
• Shortlist: 0
• Pending: 15
• 2021 Total Subs: 66

I fired off 7 submissions over the last two weeks, and 6 of those were in the first week of August. Not bad. That gives me 66 for the year and puts me firmly back in the hunt for 100. Three rejections over those two weeks, one nice personal and a couple higher-tier form letters. No acceptances or much else, really. I should hear back on a number of pending subs soon, and hopefully some of them will be of the acceptance variety.

The Novella

I finished my readthrough and first revision of my novella Effectively Wild, and I think it’s in pretty good shape. It’s now with my gracious and wonderful critique partners, who will help me sharpen it up into submittable shape. Of course, once that happens, the real challenge begins. Where do I submit it? There are a couple of speculative magazines that will take novellas of this length, but it’s a tough sell. Maybe this one gets self-pubbed. Just have to see.

Commissions

I have more commission work on the horizon, which is always cool. In fact, I’ve done so much commission work this year, it kinda makes up for the lack of acceptances. If things go as planned, I should add nearly twenty paid publication credits to ye olde writer resume in 2021. That’s good stuff.

Goals

There’s a submission call that closes on the 14th that I really, really want to take advantage of, but I’ll need to writer a new story or finish an existing one. That’s my primary goal for this week.

---

Those were my week. How were yours?