Category: Dubious Writing Advice
First Draft Finish Line: What’s Your Speed?
How long should it take you to write the first draft of a novel? There’s no right answer, really, but as both a writer of novels and a former editor of authors who write novels, I’ve identified three categories that most writers fall into… Continue Reading “First Draft Finish Line: What’s Your Speed?”
Good, but Not Good Enough
Something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is talent. Specifically, writing talent (obvs). A lot of this comes down to my specific version of impostor syndrome, which says, “Yeah, you’re good, but you’re not good enough.” Impostor syndrome is a real asshole, huh?… Continue Reading “Good, but Not Good Enough”
Three Steps for Novel Reclamation
So, recently, I returned to a novel I abandoned about four years ago. It’s tentatively titled Hell’s Aquarium, and I wrote 35,000 words, essentially the first act, got spooked by the research I needed to do, and moved on to other projects. I’ve since… Continue Reading “Three Steps for Novel Reclamation”
Rejection: It’s Not Personal
If you’re a writer who submits fiction on the regular, you’ve undoubtedly had someone tell you rejections aren’t personal. Hell, that person might have even been me! For the most part this is true, and in this post we’re going to discuss why it… Continue Reading “Rejection: It’s Not Personal”
From Draft to Acceptance: One Story’s Journey
I often talk about rejection on this blog. I mean, hell, it’s called rejectomancy, but I think acceptances can shed some light on how we as authors can and should deal with rejection. So lets look at the path one of my stories took from… Continue Reading “From Draft to Acceptance: One Story’s Journey”
What Are They Saying: Analyzing My Editorial Feedback
When you’ve collected as many rejections as I have, you read A LOT of editor and first-reader feedback. I’m never one to put much stock in isolated feedback from a single source, but when you do this long enough, you start to see some… Continue Reading “What Are They Saying: Analyzing My Editorial Feedback”
Submit or Surrender? A Tale of Three Publishers
A popular topic in writerly circles is if and when a writer should give up on a market after multiple rejections. The idea being that if an editor rejects you a certain number of times, it’s likely they are not interested in your work… Continue Reading “Submit or Surrender? A Tale of Three Publishers”
The First 500 Rejections: An Analysis
Earlier this week, I collected my 500th rejection since I’ve been tracking them through Duotrope. It took me almost ten years to amass that many, and, well I’ve certainly learned a fair bit in that time. In this post, I’ll break down what 500… Continue Reading “The First 500 Rejections: An Analysis”
Write to Revise: My WIP Checklist
This week, I started the second revision of my WIP novel Hell to Play. This is the big revision/rewrite before I start shopping it around, and it will be driven by the comments and notes from my three excellent critique partners (bless you, you wonderful… Continue Reading “Write to Revise: My WIP Checklist”
Not Good Enough: When to Trunk a Story
Recently, I went through my WIP folder and realized it was overflowing with stories, some of which had been languishing there for decades. I took a good, long look at these derelict shorts and flashes, and, well, I then created a trunk folder, which… Continue Reading “Not Good Enough: When to Trunk a Story”
Night Walk & Other Dark Paths
Acts of War: Flashpoint
Acts of War: Aftershock
Acts of War: Stormbreak
Aeryn Rudel's Rejectomancy 