A Week of Writing: 3/7/22 to 3/13/22
One more week of writing in the books. Here’s how I did.
Words to Write By
I’ve used this quote before, but I like it, so here’s some writerly wisdom from W. Somerset Maugham.
“There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”
—W. Somerset Maugham
Go to social media—any platform will do—and search on “writing rules” or “how to write a novel”. You will come up with hundreds, if not thousands, of rules and regulations on how you must go about writing a novel, or writing for a specific genre, or how many adverbs and and exclamation points you can use. These proclamations will come from everyone from folks writing their first novel to people writing their fiftieth. Here’s the thing. These rules-makers are right about one thing. There are indeed rules for writing a novel. I’ll tell you what they are. Ready? They’re whatever it takes for you to complete a manuscript, get it revised, and get it out into the world. That’s it.
Now, some of my own writing rules coincide with the writing rules of others (that adverb and exclamation point thing, for example), and others do not (one of my finished novels has a prologue), but I have, for the most part, figured out what it takes for me to finish a novel—my rules, if you will. So, it’s okay to listen to other writers when they tell you how you should go about writing a novel, but if their rules don’t match up with yours, that’s okay too.
Short Story Submissions
An active and productive week in submission land.
- Submissions Sent: 4
- Rejections: 3
- Acceptances: 2
- Publications: 0
- Shortlist/Hold: 0
- Withdrawn: 0
- Pending: 14
- 2022 Total Subs: 23
Last week I sent 4 new submissions, collected 3 rejections, and received a pair of acceptances. That’s a pretty good week. One of the acceptances was from The Arcanist, and that story will be published later this week. The other is with a new publication, and I’ll share more info about that one in the near future. Of the three rejections, two were of the form variety, and the the third was a personal no. I still have 14 submissions pending (though two of those are novel subs). I also sent out two brand new stories this week, and I have high hopes for them.
Novel
Worked on revamping the outline to Hell’s Aquarium, and I’ll start writing new material for it soon. Had to deal with some real life issues that kept me away from my keyboard a bit more than I’d like, which has delayed my long-form fiction writing. That’s okay, though. Life happens. Everything’s fine, though, and I’m looking forward to writing new material in the very near future. 🙂
The Rejectonomicon
The second volume of THE REJECTONOMICON, my Q&A column over at Dark Matter Magazine, went live last week. You can read the latest article by clicking the banner below.
As always, I still need your questions. Here’s how to send them to me.
- Email your question to questions@rejectomancy.com.
- Put REJECTONOMICON in the subject line of the email.
- Write your question in the body of the email. Try to keep it brief.
- Please let me know if you’d like your first name published along with your question or if you’d like to remain anonymous.
- Please restrict your questions to the subjects of writing, submissions, and rejections. Those are pretty broad categories, though, and I’d be happy to field questions about my past career as a Tabletop RPG game designer/editor and media tie-in writer.
Got it? Then send me those questions!
Goals
Same as usual: send submissions and keep working on the outline for Hell’s Aquarium..
That was my week. How was yours?
2 Comments on “A Week of Writing: 3/7/22 to 3/13/22”
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Aeryn Rudel's Rejectomancy 
I enjoyed the story in the Arcanist. Daily Science Fiction had a vampire story not too long ago. I had to double check the author thinking it had to be you. 😆
Thanks! Wait, someone else is writing vampire stories?! How DARE they! 😉