A Week of Writing: 11/1/21 to 11/7/21

First week of November is history. Here’s how I did.

Words to Write By

Another quote from one of my faves, Elmore Leonard. 

I think the best advice I give is to try not to write. Try not to overwrite, try not to make it sound too good. Just use your own voice. Use your own style of putting it down.

― Elmore Leonard

This quote reminds of when I first started writing, and I think it’s great advice for new authors. Invariably, when you start out, you tend to mimic the styles of other authors. When I started, I was reading a lot of pulp fiction, primarily Lovecraft and Howard. So my first story attempts were these terribly overwritten, wordy monstrosities. Sometimes these stories had good concepts, but I’d muck them up with prose that sounded like I was using a thesaurus for every adjective. Of course, when I sent these stories out on submission, they were rightly and routinely rejected. It was years later that I begin to write in something that resembled my own voice, and, oddly, enough, Elmore Leonard was a big influence on my personal style. (Influence and mimicry being very different things.) Once I found my voice, the writing because easier and, well, I started to publish. Now, finding publishers that appreciate your voice is another matter, and that’s still a work in progress. 🙂

Short Story Submissions

A more productive week in submission land.

• Submissions Sent: 5
• Rejections: 1
• Acceptances: 0
• Publications: 0
• Shortlist: 0
• Withdrawn: 1
• Pending: 16
• 2021 Total Subs: 99

I sent five submissions last week, which gives me 99 for the year. Hitting 100 is now a forgone conclusion, but I might slow down a bit and work on/finish some new material. I’ll likely send my 100th this week, but I’m not in a huge rush to do it. Only one rejection last week. An encouraging rejection as things go, and I know the story is a good one. I just need to find the right market, which I something I’ve struggled mightily to do in 2021. Submission targeting is an important part of submission success, and mine has been a little off the mark this year.

Interview

Hey, look at that; a new section. A while back, the folks from Long Lost Friends, which is run by the publisher Metastellar, interviewed me about my collection Night Walk and writing flash fiction. We spent some time on how I write flash in an hour and why. Anyway, if you want to see that interview, the link is below. There is also some wholesome cat content if that helps you click the link. 🙂

Freelance Work

I’m working steadily on short stories for Privateer Press’s Warcaster: Neo-Mechanika setting. I’ve completed and revised three of the seven I’m contracted for, and they’re off to editing. I’ll finish the first draft of the fourth and fifth this week (maybe the sixth). Anyway, these are going well, and I’m having a lot of fun writing them. I have a nice comfortable deadline, but I’m enjoying the writing so much, I can’t help but charge ahead.

Goals

One again, more freelance work and more submissions.

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That was my week. How was yours?