A Week of Writing: 8/16/21 to 8/22/21

One more week in the books. Here’s how I did.

Words to Write By

Another good one from Ray Bradbury.

“Write a short story every week. It’s not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.”

― Ray Bradbury

I don’t know if I agree that it’s not possible to write 52 bad stories in a row, but, then again, who am I to argue with the great Ray Bradbury? I do like the idea of a story per week, and if you write a lot of flash fiction like I do, then it doesn’t seem too impossible. I did a quick, ballpark calculation of how many stories I’ve written this year, and I came up with 31. I have more coming with commission work, so I have a pretty good shot at 52 for the year. Not counting commission work, I’ll probably end up with 30 or so stories of my own IP. That’s  the number I’d like to push up to a story-a-week. I might give that a try in 2022.

Short Story Submissions

Another not-so-stellar week in submission land

• Submissions Sent: 1
• Rejections: 0
• Acceptances: 0
• Publications: 0
• Shortlist: 0
• Pending: 16
• 2021 Total Subs: 68

I only managed one submission again last week, but it was a big one. I sent my novella Effectively Wild out on it’s first submission. It’s gonna be a long shot no matter where I send it because magazines that publish novellas are not common and those that do might publish one every two or three issues. So I’ve got an uphill battle if I continue to focus on spec-fic magazines. A better approach will likely be to shop it to small book publishers that publish standalone novellas. No rejections last week and no publisher responses of any kind, actually. The deluge has got to be right around the corner.

Commission Work

I’ve been commissioned to write another gaggle of media tie-in short stories, and work on those will commence soon. I’m also in talks to write a 5E D&D adventure, and I’m looking forward to that. It’s been a minute since I dipped a toe into that particular pool, but I love 5E and the world this adventure will be set in is also one I’m intimately familiar with. It’s been a damn good year for commission work, and I forgot how much I enjoy doing it. I might start actively seeking it out more in the future.

Goals

I came up with a really good idea for a short story, and I’d like to bang out the first draft. I also need to write a flash piece for an upcoming competition. I’d love to accomplish both this week.

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That was my week. How was yours?