Four for four!

[swan_tower]

"The Moon and the Son"

1,495 / 1,495 (100.0%)

Even shorter than I thought it might be, which is both good (it means I was able to finish it today, despite stalling out Thursday and doing nothing Friday) and bad (it's really more the skeleton of the story than the story itself). But hey, it's done, and first drafts are allowed to suck. I think I wanted to be writing something else, but nothing suggested itself, and I wasn't about to start something new with only a day to complete it.

So. Four short stories in four weeks; good for me. "The Deaths of Christopher Marlowe," "Waiting for Beauty," "Degrees of Heresy," and "The Moon and the Son." (Hmmm -- maybe "A Heretic by Degrees," instead. Still not settled on a title for that one.) I realized, looking back at my records, that I needed this challenge more than I thought; in the fourteen months or so prior to starting it, I'd written a whopping three stories. (Marketable things; I'm not counting two very brief bits written for games.) Sure, there was a novel in there, but what about the months that weren't spent on the novel? What about the days when I could write both at once? Three stories is beyond pathetic.

I don't feel up to Jay Lake's standard of a short story every week, without fail, but then again, the man also wrote a novel at a speed that makes even The Vengeance of Trees, my seven-week novel, look lazy. On the other hand, I can do better than three stories a year. I think I might try keeping to a standard of one a month. I can manage that, right? I think that if I just sit down with Peter Pan for a while, I can write "The Last Wendy," and then I really want to come up with a Changing Sea short story for Clash of Steel's pirate issue. (Certain individuals I know might want to take note of that, too.) We'll see if I can manage it, but really, I ought to be able to.

Now, however, I shall take a break, and try not to start mentally revising something already.

Comments

[ninja-turbo.livejournal.com]

Pirate Issue, you say?

*eyes "The Coming of the Change"*

*runs off to Clash of Steel's site*

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Whatever made you think I might be referring to you? <failed attempt to look innocent>

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

If I were you, honestly, I wouldn't send them "The Coming of the Change." I'd send them something else in that setting, with or without those characters. It's a pirate-y setting, but not a terribly pirate-y story; you might do better with a different piece.

[ninja-turbo.livejournal.com]

True dat. 'sides, I think "Coming of the Change" might do better for the Tiresias Revisited: Magical Tales for Transfolk collection. Luckily, the Pirate submission window is a little ways off, so I'd have time to start something new.

Not like I'm already completely immersed in this setting right now.


But thanks again for bringing the issue/mag to my attention.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. If they paid better, I might try that collection with "A Mask of Flesh." As it stands, though, I'd rather try to sell it somewhere that pays more than a cent a word.

[ninja-turbo.livejournal.com]

*nod* Right now, getting stories purchased at all is more important to me than getting more moolah for them. Of course, your situation is different than mine on that equation.

I'm looking forward to seeing some of these stories to crit in the not-too-distant future, and congrats on stepping up your short form productivity.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

But money at least partially correlates to prestige; you're better off making one sale to a known and respected market than four to dinky little places nobody's heard of. Which is not to say you shouldn't try the collection, since your story is directly on-topic for them -- but I wouldn't make a habit of bypassing the bigger places. (Apropos of my recent post.)

And don't get me started on having to revise these stupid things. I don't want to think about it any time soon.

[ninja-turbo.livejournal.com]

Revision? Who said anything about revision? < Fakes Innocence >

Look, monkeys!

[kniedzw.livejournal.com]

Ook.

[unforth.livejournal.com]

spiffy! way to go!