So today, The Burden of So Many Roses is live over on Kazka Press, where the theme this month is an undelivered valentine. My guess is (I haven’t read all the stories yet) that if you’re not a fan of gooey Valentine’s Day stories, you’ll be happy with the fare offered up this month.
At least, mine isn’t gooey.
It is, however, a milestone story for me. Here’s the breakdown:
1/3/2013: finished the draft
1/13/2013: sent to Kazka Press
1/30/2013: accepted
2/5/2013: published!
Not only is that one of the fastest turnaround times for me, submission to acceptance, it is the fastest I’ve ever drafted/revised/polished a story and sent it out. That being said, Kazka Press has a list of prompts on their submission page, and I had that undelivered valentine fermenting in the back of my mind for the entire month of December. That probably helped.
One of my goals this year is to figure out how to maintain a steady pace of writing while dealing with the ebbs in my creativity. And ebb it does. To the point where I’m all reclined on the fainting couch, hand on forehead, and despairing, I’ll never write again!
But since I always do, I’ve stopped believing myself when I get this way. This is why Write 1/Sub 1 is such a challenge. If I don’t write one, I’ll run out of things to submit. But it’s teaching me that:
- I can write more than I think I can.
- I have more story ideas than I think I do.
- No one story concept is like another. Some tumble out like gifts, some I pick at, bit by bit.
- There’s no wrong way to draft a short story.
Sometimes, to write, you simply need to get out of your own way.
Writing Wrongs 