Post-NaNo life and looking to the future

After a brief respite following the madness that is National Novel Writing Month, I'm ready to get back to writing. And this time I mean business! I've spent a month writing like my hair was on fire, and though it was difficult at times, I miss it. Most of all I miss the presence of the deadline on my neck.

Wait. What? Yes, I said I miss the deadline. Why? Because it was largely the knowledge that if I didn't get the requisite number of words written by midnight on November 30, I wouldn't win and I wouldn't get the rewards that come with winning. I dragged myself to the keyboard whether I had something in mind or not. Some days I sat here staring blankly at the screen, knowing the sprint timer was running and I had to start sometime. So I started with a character's name and words fell out of my head. Sometimes they were crappy words, but usually they were at least okay. During NaNo the quality doesn't matter quite so much, as I've mentioned here before. But even in daily writing that's not part of a mad writing marathon, first drafts are first drafts. They can be plagued with plot holes or typos, stale dialogue or continuity errors. First you get it all out, then you revise.

I've spent the last few days not writing like a fiend, and also looking into what writing projects I have that I want to work on. I'm determined to write (nearly) every day, and I have enough work to get done. Between a pair of short stories I'm working on, various and sundry other incomplete works I've started over the years, articles for Associated Content, and this blog, I have plenty on my plate. But things need to be done in a certain order.

I looked at Duotrope for markets Thursday. Just breezed over and did a search for places that might buy one of my two stories when they're finished and ready for publication. Here's how to scare yourself in one easy step: two of the fifteen choices I was initially offered were Lightspeed and Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show. Lightspeed's site shows that several of their recent stories were purchased from big names. Robert Silverberg. Stephen King. George R. R. Martin. And if you're a science fiction fan who doesn't recognise Orson Scott Card's name, you've missed out. There were other markets, but those two, unsurprisingly, made Duotrope's 25 Most Challenging Markets list. Eheh.

Cart before the horse? Yes. I'm like that sometimes. The idea of submitting to a magazine which publishes such prominent authors is daunting. Then again, I could have what they're looking for. I won't know until I finish my stories and send them in.

I feel the need to seek advice about the publishing world. I know little about it. Should I submit my work to non-paying markets first, to increase my chances of publication and to get publication credits? Or should I go right ahead and send to Lightspeed and its fellows or other publications, perhaps to collect my first-ever rejection? And what about Associated Content? While AC doesn't pay for fiction, and I doubt I'd send them my serious stuff, I could certainly make some progress by publishing poetry or even a brief serial story there.

I have plans, and, now that NaNo is over, I have time to pursue them. Time to put my butt in the chair and get to work.

Contemplating Rejection

Erika Dreifus writes the Practicing Writer blog. In Thursday's post she showed a photo of the binder which contains her rejection letters for the collection of stories in question and makes reference to a far larger binder of individual story rejections.

I have no rejection letters in my collection. That's because I haven't submitted anything for publication anywhere since my goofy poem got published in my college literary magazine in 2000. The lit mag doesn't give out rejection letters; if they don't select it, your piece just doesn't appear. I had submitted a short story which was not selected for publication in that same magazine.

It's a foregone conclusion that in order to be published, one must submit content to a publisher. It's always a risk, though, because if the editor doesn't like your work, your work is unsuitable for their publication, or they just don't have room at the moment, they'll send you a dreaded rejection letter. Rejection is a milestone I haven't yet reached. I don't have the experience of receiving a rejection notice, but it's precisely because I haven't put myself out there yet.

I've read writers' advice that states that a writer should never take a rejection letter personally. The letter refers to the content itself, and not the writer. If a magazine rejects your article, it doesn't also mean they think you're a bad writer, have stupid hair, and smell funny. It just means they chose not to publish your work. When I receive my first rejection, I'll try to keep that in mind.

Have you had a piece of writing rejected by a publisher? I'd be interested in hearing about your experience.

It's Monday. It's raining off and on, looking foggy and bleak. I've got the lights and the heater on to help chase the cold damp away while I write. I never quite got around to putting up a blog post last night, and this morning I've been playing with Blogger's new Template Designer in my test blog. I love the music in the video they put up about it - I want to know whose music that is.

The only writing I did this weekend was on a role-playing game called Cat. I put in some time designing an adventure for this game about the secret (and not-so-secret) lives of everyday housecats. It's a rules-light, fun game that my fellow gamers seem to really love. It's much easier to put time in on a project when you know you have an audience that enjoys it. I didn't design the game, but if players are asking me when we'll play next, knowing I'm the one writing the adventures we play, it makes me eager to get to work.

As to the blog, I'm thinking of going to a three-column format so all the links and things I've started including can be easily viewed without the reader having to scroll down the entire length of the screen. I may use the Template Designer for that. I still need a custom header image, too. More on that later. Also on the subject of the blog, I need to get in touch with the folks at Moleskine for help with the MSK format. I don't know if any of my readers uses the format, but I'd like to have a hard-copy of my blog on hand, and printing it out in MSK format will make it easy to take with me. I've been a bit neglectful on that score.

This week I hope to tackle the issue of publication for no pay - is it a good idea? Is exposure for a neophyte writer its own reward? And if so, what are the best markets to submit to?

Have a creative week!

Markets, Contests, and Things

I spent some time looking at markets yesterday. Markets and contests and grants, oh my. There sure are a lot of them out there. It's going to take some research and a lot of question-asking to find the ones that are best for me.

Practicing Writing, a blog linked in my blog list over there, has a newsletter that includes marketing and other professional advice. I've signed up for a few other groups and newsletters in the past few days, including qarrtsiluni, an online literary magazine.

I also looked at Duotrope's Digest, which features a great search engine of markets. All its information is based on reports made by writers who've submitted work to these markets, and the search engine makes it easy to find what you're looking for. It doesn't reduce the sheer volume of markets, but it should help you find the slice of the market pie that's suitable for what you're writing.

So before I get too caught up in poking around for another new site/magazine/contest to mention, I'm gonna stop here. I think the caffeine in my tea has not quite made it to my brain yet, and the result is ...

What was I writing? Yeah, see what I mean? Back tomorrow with ... something. Be creative!