Write 1/Sub 1 – Page 4 – Writing Wrongs

Write 1/Sub 1 check in: week 38 the one with more milestones

Week 38! Well, September is shaping up rather nicely. Two milestone acceptances this week. Two! I know, it’s crazy times around here.

First, I sold audio/reprint rights for The Secret Life of Sleeping Beauty to Cast of Wonders. I can’t wait to hear what they do with the story.

Then, the next day, I find out that my poem (yes, poem) Land of the Free (Haircuts) will be part of Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors, Volume 2. The anthology is a partnership between the Missouri Humanities Council, Warriors Arts Alliance, and Southeast Missouri State University Press.

Like I said, crazy times.

My write 1 for the week was the Flash Fiction Challenge. What did I end up with? Take a look:

Comedy / a rain forest / water balloon

My first draft ended up at 999 words. I played around with it a bit, then put it away to compost overnight. I’ll take a last look later today, proof it, and send it off. I don’t know how funny it is. I think, at most, it’s lightly humorous (and that’s a stretch). But! It’s done! I did it! And it was fun to write. And really, you can’t ask for more than that.

Since that was my write 1 for the week, I spent time getting stories from my notebook into electronic form. I now have three more to shape up and send off in the near future. Plus, I started a longer short story.

All in all, not a bad week.

Writing:

Five to Freedom ~ 999 words

Submissions:

Just a Matter of Time
Filling the Space

Rejections:

The Patron Saint of Lost Things ~ the editors mentioned that this did make their short list, so that was nice.

Acceptances:

The Secret Life of Sleeping Beauty
Land of the Free (Haircuts)

Write 1/Sub 1 check in: week 37 the one with a big cup of ghostly coffee

Week 37! More big news this week. Ghost in the Coffee Machine will be part of the COFFEE: Caffeinated Tales of the Fantastic anthology, due out later this year (in time for the holidays)!

My write 1 for the week was another flash challenge assignment, which was:

Open/ A rooftop / press-on fingernails

I came in at 2,000 words or so. Not quite a flash, and I’m thinking this story needs a bit more, but I really like where it ended up, press-on fingernails and all, so there’s that.

In fact, I counted up the number of draft stories I have and it came out to nine. Nine! This does not include the story with the glass eye. Yeah, that one probably isn’t making it out of my notebook.

I have four draft stories in electronic form and five still in my (paper) notebook. I need to carve out a little time and get the rest of those stories into electronic form so I can start sending them out.

Writing:

What Little Remains ~ 2,000 words

Submissions:

Alliance
Straying from the Path
Rules for Visiting Hades ~ an old story submitted to a journal doing a “resurrection issue”. They want stories from defunct markets that are not currently archived online. This story fit the bill (in those terms–it may not be to the journal’s taste).

Rejections:

Straying from the Path ~ an “almost for us” rejection from Daily Science Fiction. Oh, so close! Back out it goes.
Filling the Space

Acceptances:

Ghost in the Coffee Machine ~ will be published in COFFEE: Caffeinated Tales of the Fantastic. Out later this year! Pre-order early! Pre-order often!

Write 1/Sub 1 check in: week 36 the one with the Mad Scientist

Week 36! My big news: I sold another story. The Short Sweet Life of My Invisible Prom Date will be published in an upcoming issue of Mad Scientist Journal.

It’s such a quirky little story that I’m very pleased it managed to find a home.

My write 1 for the week was another flash challenge assignment, which was:

Comedy/ A space station/ Onion rings

Again, while I don’t plan to ever look a gift story in the mouth, this one came in at about 3,000 words (you’ll note the trend–longer, not shorter) and it in no way resembles a comedy (despite those onion rings). This upcoming week I hope to write an actual piece of flash fiction. We’ll see how that goes.

Writing:

The Ways of Goodbye ~ 3,000 words, I’m not overly fond of this title, but the only other one I can think of is: Onion Ring Story.

Submissions:

Playing Soldier

Rejections:

Alliance

Acceptances:

The Short Sweet Life of My Invisible Prom Date ~ will be published in Mad Scientist Journal: Winter 2014, in early April 2014.

Write 1/Sub 1 check in: week 35 the one with the August wrap up

Week 35! I was a submitting fool this week again, catching a few markets before they closed at the end of August. Total for August? Nine stories submitted and I wrote five. Not a bad way to wrap up the summer.

I also got my write 1 in for the week, another flash challenge assignment, which was:

Sci Fi / A luxury spa / a wig

This actually gave me more to work with–maybe too much more, since it came in at ~ 2,000 words. But I really liked where the story was going and I’m not one to look a gift story in the mouth.

No rejections or acceptances this week, but one of the stories I sent out did make the first round cut for an anthology. Now it’s simply a matter of waiting. Fortunately, that was one of the skills I perfected in the Army.

Writing:

Inside Out ~ 2,000 words

Submissions:

Ghost in the Coffee Machine ~ short listed
Straying from the Path
The Patron Saint of Lost Things

Rejections:

None

Acceptances:

None

Ten day challenge day 9: the story behind the story

I didn’t plan day #9 like this, but it worked out just fine. Today’s prompt:

Post either a setting or character profile from your latest fiction project, a chapter summary of your non-fiction book, or a discussion of the theme or object inspiring a poem, article, or other writing project.

So … I’m still a little amazed that Kazka Press accepted The Girl with the Piccolo. It’s … uh … whimsical? I don’t know. Anyway, they did, and there it is. I started down the path of this story with a prompt from The Writer’s Regimen, which was, in part:

Try creating a character whose occupation is one that you are not familiar with and do some research as to what knowledge and skills he or she would need to fill that position.

Why I tried searching on jobs that involved noise, I’m not certain, but I came across listings for jobs in the United Kingdom for noise officers. I remember thinking, sure, we have people who clean up trash, purify water, and so on. What if you had to clean up noise?

Probably because I’m former military, officer = army, and my mind went off in that direction. The rest of it? You got me. I do know this. The following phrase popped into my head at one point:

Everyone always underestimates the girl with the piccolo.

There you go. That was enough character/conflict for me to take the idea and run with it for about 1,000 words. The story begins with:

No one thinks about the empty note casings after the nightly revelry. Someone has to pick them up, right? That I spent four grueling years at the Acoustic Academy at Stormy Point for the privilege is something I try not to think about.

You can read the rest here.

Write 1/Sub 1 check in: week 31 the one with the surprise acceptance

Week 31! This week, I conclusively proved that staring at your submission tracker does not make editors respond faster. I stared at that thing all week long, and it wasn’t until Friday that I received any type of response.

Of course, one of those responses was an acceptance from Kazka Press for their Sax & Violins (and Other Tales of Music) issue. And seriously, I was not expecting this. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t pleased. I’ll write a bit more about it when it goes live on the Kazka Press site later this week. It’s a combination Write 1/Sub 1 and the Writer’s Regimen story.

Writing:

Shadow Creatures ~3,500 words. Mind you, this is not the story title, just a placeholder to remind me what the story is about. Apparently, it is about shadow creatures; that could change.
Blog post challenge

Submissions:

Breaking Plans ~ New story out this week.

Rejections:

Alliance

Acceptances:

The Girl with the Piccolo ~ Kazka Press

Ten day challenge day 8: writing routines

Jumping back on board with day #8. Today’s prompt:

Post about your writing routines / rituals / habits or quirks – or – your writing origins story

The key word in the above is routine. Not rut. Not chore. But routine, like exercise routine. (See post #6 in this challenge where I write about exercise.) The benefit of a routine–or habit–is that you remove the decision-making part of the process–and the angst that surrounds it. Now is the time I exercise. Now is the time I write. Now is the time on Sprockets when we dance.

You know, like that.

Anyway, after I eat my lunch, then I write. Since I’ve been doing this on a regular basis, I’ve discovered that some of my best days happen when I walk in without any idea what to write. I do mean nothing. Not a clue. No muse. No inspiration. But! It’s time to write. So. I go do it. Often, I have a conversation that goes like this:

Me: You’ve got something brewing back there, right?
Unconscious Mind: Don’t I always?
Me: …
UM: No, really, I do. It’s only when you force it and think too hard that I don’t. I’m shy that way.
Me: Right.
UM: I always have your back, as long as you don’t think.
Me: I’ll stop thinking.
UM: Good girl.

Or something like that. The hard part is trusting yourself to do this. But this idea is hardly original to me. In fact, I’ve borrowed this idea from Ray Bradbury. On a card I carry with me, I have these three rules from Zen in the Art of Writing: