Submission frustrations

I was once told, (by an editor), that: ‘You have too much invested in your submissions if you can’t stand to wait a year or more for a reply’.

Damn!?!? Well, yeah, I DO invest a lot of myself in my work. If I didn’t, what would be the point of sitting here joining words together? (And deleting most of them again.) I pondered this industry attitude where submissions are reduced to brightly coloured shapes that must fit well-worn holes.

At the end of my think I still feel a year is an excessive length of time for a publisher to sit on a manuscript.

As I understand it, a single editor glances over each new submission. He or she may not quite love your story enough to publish it as is, nor will they necessarily feel they have an obligation to follow up with the author.

I welcome myself to harsh reality.

How is a writer to succeed? Pure chance must play a huge role when you are faced with a single person’s opinion or mindset. We toss our manuscripts at the publishing world’s cyclone and hope it lands on a desk whose editor just got laid, has had a coffee and feels OK with the world.

Many publishers I submitted to were clearly overloaded. Some indicated they wouldn’t be able to respond to submissions for weeks or months. But in their search for polished gold they continue taking on more ore.

How many dusty gems sit right now in their unread slush piles?

Few publishers have a definite acknowledgment structure for submissions. It’s left to the author to judge the amount of queries to make and when to pull their submission. But you will soon run out of reputable publishers by irritating them with your needs.

Yes it was quite a hard think I had. I’m still trying to wrap my head around all the points of view here.

Eventually, feeling my enthusiasm gradually wind down at the utter lack of communication, I self-published. The instant response from the public forum was incredibly gratifying. Honest opinion, praise and criticism abound on the net.

There’s no real point to this post. I’ve tried very hard to edit out the whining. (Took a while.) I know our selfish human natures play a role on both sides of this haphazardly erected fence. I made my own gate. Some are content to wait at the door.

All I’m really after is the briefest reply from those who control the market. ‘Yes, we like it’; ‘No, it’s crap’; ‘Needs work along the following lines...’. Give me some feedback so I can edit, delete or move to my next project.

Fatal cure is FINISHED

My first serial horror novel ‘Fatal Cure’ has ‘THE END...FOR NOW’, typed on the last page. It is a complete novel, though I deliberately left it open for a sequel. Mainly because Sam’s character has proved to be so much fun to torture.

While I originally had a fairly finished draft to work from, I let the steering wheel go and sat back with the passengers a few times on this ride. Letting the designated guided tour get hijacked and become a mystery flight opened Sam’s troubles into a world of pain. I went with it and let random inspiration dictate the story.

I allowed this to happen figuring the car with no brakes will reach the bottom of the mountain the same as the one carefully navigating switch-backed curves. Maybe it will be on fire and unrecognisable, but that too is a good analogy for publishing in a serial format.

Constrained by self-imposed deadlines to prevent readers disappearing in droves, I published earlier than I would have liked on several occasions, (late), with my reader’s anticipation in mind. All avenues were not explored as I normally would.

And yet I think the end result is acceptable.

To me in any case.

I have thanked everyone who contributed to the project with suggestions, criticism and encouragement on the Serial Killers blog. I do so again here as you, my readers, are the reason I write. Sure, I did this for myself as well. I was unwilling to risk wondering for the rest of my life, ‘what if I wrote that novel?’, but the satisfaction is in entertaining you all.

If you haven’t started reading the story you can start from HERE. Please Bookmark me in your favourite News Reader and spread the word to your friends if you enjoyed my style.

How to write - Part 2

Writing fiction successfully – What’s it all about?

I define ‘it’ as extracting an idea from one’s head and forcing it into words that must line up in orderly rows on a page in such a manner that other people can understand the information contained therein. And be blown away by the result.

Didjagetallthat?

Personal attempts to fulfil the above are difficult to break down, so good luck getting anything useful from the following.

I relate my methods neither as advice nor enlightenment. You’d agree if you had the opportunity to check out the haphazard and unprofessional way I peck at the keyboard, offhandedly playing a game on a social networking site at the same time, or ducking out to dig a hole. Take what you want from my opinions here but if you expected a foolproof formula backed up by rigid discipline as my Grand Plan, forget it.

I take breaks. Removing myself from the story from time to time is an important part of writing. It’s not due to laziness or the result of a short attention span. It’s amazing what the brain comes up with by itself when you stop trying to force it. Theories abound about this phenomenon and I’ve picked a couple that suit me. We’re all different so go ahead, choose different ones.

(Deadlines really balls-up this essential requirement.)

How about 'Inspiration'? Halfway through mowing the lawn can be an awkward time for the Great Idea to happen, but breakthroughs should be written down immediately. You’ll hate yourself later if it evaporates un-noted. So what if you get grass clippings all through the house and the neighbours scratch their heads because your mower sits idling unattended for 20 minutes? What price can you put on Literary Nirvana?

(Until the edit. That’s when you’ll find the paragraphs refuse to mesh, and the tenses are all wrong. By the way, if you’ve ever experienced the loss of an idea because of your own laziness I can commiserate.)

Then there are the exceptional days. Unnoticed, darkness has descended and you’ve edited an inconceivably crappy bunch of words into a remarkably readable paragraph. That’s right; sometimes a day’s work will result in one, single, usable paragraph. Hopefully you’ve also jotted another bunch of junk below it for tomorrow’s repair session.

And you might have a headache.

Beware the generically offered ‘Secrets to Literary Success’. I know the people selling this crap are rich and successful. Look who’s throwing money at them. You, Dummy.

It’s the bunch of worthless, shitty platitudes you purchase that annoys me. I’m convinced that there is no secret. You CAN seek advice from many sources and build a support base of intelligent people, then use your mind to create new worlds by actually typing words on the screen. Or you could try whinging a lot and write nothing at all.

Harsh? Yes. True? Absolutely. Unnecessarily arrogant? Maybe.

Writing is an intensely personal, human-spirited endeavour. There is no 'wrong way' if the end result is pleasing. Find YOUR way.

Like it? See - How to Write - Part 1

Multiple Submissions

I recently had a horrible feeling. I wondered if I’ve been doing the right thing by adhering to publisher’s guidelines too strictly all this time. And I wondered if I might be harming my chances of being published by doing so.

In the beginning I sent my submissions out into the world, to carefully chosen publishers, in the formats they wanted, and then waited the months they stipulated.

Nothing would come back. Not even a form letter of rejection.

So, I’d question its worth, as you do, edit the story and send it somewhere else.

Nothing.

It got to the stage where a rejection email would get me as excited as winning the lottery. Sort of.

I guess I don’t have the experience behind me to take silent rejection in my stride. I need feedback. I know what you’re thinking, and it crossed my mind too. Maybe I’m not good enough. Maybe I’m the guy clutching his wonderful, dog-eared book of crappy poems, who won’t admit they’re garbage.

I don't want to be that guy. I also don’t want to be the guy struggling to carry bricks when a wheelbarrow is close by. If there’s a better way of doing something, I wanted to know about it.

I joined a very useful writers group. On the Internet as I don’t live in Metropolis. I seem to have lucked out with this forum. The one I latched onto actually has active members who want to help. Better yet, some of them have the backgrounds to give proper answers to my stupid questions.

I put to them the query of making multiple submissions. Does it increase my chances or is it the anathema publishers warm against.

Unsurprisingly the answer is ‘DON’T’.

The question arose from trawling the Internet and finding a few writers’ blogs encouraging that very thing. ‘Flood the market, someone will pick you up, and screw the rest.’

Common sense, and empathy for an editor’s workload, already told me it would only piss them off to finish their vetting process, accept a story, and then get a ‘thanks, but no thanks’ from the writer in return.

Mind you, it’s good to have my belief confirmed by industry professionals. I’d hate being the only one still standing in line while everyone else has used the side door and are already inside.

Fatal Cure Update

I'm really, really sorry to do this again to my Killer Serials - Fatal Cure readers. I said way back in January 2008 that I wouldn't change previous chapters, or bugger up the continuity, or force readers to back-track... but... I had to.

To avoid a spoiler situation I'll only say Chapter 83 has been altered to make what happened to Sam much more traumatic. I didn't think it felt right even while I hit the publish button the first time and I usually hold off until it does feel right. But it had been three days since the last episode and I feared losing momentum, which is hard to come by at the moment.

While I don't expect forgiveness, you have to understand how fluid the story is at the moment. I have no notes, no draft, and only a partial idea of how this thing ends. (And I only got the idea for that ending in the last few weeks.) Really I could hammer away at Sam for years but I don't want him to get stale. If I finish this series and move on to another project I might have the inspiration to do a Parasite sequel some time in the future.

I also intend, (later), moving the story one chapter at a time to my WordPress site which will involve a heavy edit. You are reading a fairly polished draft, but it is still a draft. It is also full of experimentation with words and ways of implying moods which may not have come across as I need them too.

Please keep reading. I promise not to screw around like this too much and I'll always let you know when I do. This is a once a year event so far. Think how my poor sister must feel. She has to edit this stuff.

NaNoWriMo - 2008 - The End

I took a gander at the NaNoWriMo site today. The preliminary stats are in. Almost 20% of people who entered this year finished. That's pretty good going from the 119,301 authors who signed up. Last year it was around 100,000.

Of everyone registered, 21,683 won. That's 18.2% if you need precise figures.

If I was standing in a football field with them all I might not feel special, but sitting here with bleeding fingers, I do.

Till next year.

NaNoWriMo - Day 26

Number One Competitor: 50,363 (NaNo wants 43,333)

Coops: Did I mention I was ALREADY FINISHED.

No. 1's justification/excuse: Some people have to work for a living. Good on you for beating the clock. 4 days early is pretty impressive and with the quality of work you have done extremely well. We'll lay down better ground rules next year.

No. 1's lame rating: 0

NaNoWriMo - Day 25

Number One Competitor: 46,093 (NaNo wants 41,667)

Coops: Finished

No. 1's justification/excuse: Too busy. Pfffffttt.

No. 1's lame rating: 9 (Edit, reduced to 4. Late word count advancement missed 'last call')

NaNoWriMo - Day 24

No. 1 Competitor: 46,093 (NaNo wants 40,000)

Coops: FINISHED

Justification/excuse: So nice to be finished and getting on with important stuff, like watching the stock market eat our money and surfing the net.

Lame rating: 0

NaNoWriMo - Day 23

Finished at 12:13pm.

Stopped in the middle of a sentence and banished the file for later, (much later), consideration, (and mass deletions).

Number One Competitor: 44,600 (NaNo wants 38,333). Still busting her arse and maintaining her strict requirements of delivering a readable, completely finished, publishable piece of work.

Coops: 50,019. (NaNo can get stuffed).

Justification/excuse: Next year will involve planning. This 'winging it' method has not opened the gates of creativity as I hoped.

Lame rating: 10. (Wrote just to fill the page. It was just like being back in school writing whatever the teacher put on the board.)

NaNoWriMo - Day 22

I wonder if banging my head against the keyboard and using what comes out can be counted as writing?

Number 1's made an herculean effort. Her will is strong. Her wrists maybe not so strong.

Number One Competitor: 41,132

Coops: 45,555 (NaNo wants 36,667)

Justification/excuse: Neeaaaarrrlllyy there.

Lame rating: It's so lame a fourth grade teacher would give me an F. Not the good kind of F either.

NaNoWriMo - Day 21

Going solely by gut-feel and using a rule-of-thumb method, I have come up with the following figure. One in every few hundred words is usable. MAYBE. Some idea or a name or maybe a full stop can be salvaged.

As you can see I'm not very excited about the whole idea anymore. The only reason I persevere with this stupid flash-fiction/dialogue thing is for the sake of fair play. If I were to change tack mid-stream, as it were, I think it would be unfair. To someone. Somewhere.

Number One Competitor: 35,511

Coops: 42,982 (NaNo wants: 35,000)

Justification/excuse: 7,000 words feels very far away even with such a lead. I don't know what No. 1 is up to. Not typing I suspect.

Lame rating: 6 and my fingertips hurt.

NaNoWriMo - Day 20

Stupid damn computer stole more words this morning. Something to do with the way I save, back up or retrieve my files.

Thanks No.1 Competitor for trying to explain my part in the error to me and to yourself.

I still think it's ridiculous that there is more likelihood of screwing up your work by backing it up than if you left it the hell alone in the first place.

I'm talking about MS Word 2007 in case you were wondering.

Number One Competitor: 35,551

Coops: 39,635 (NaNo wants 33,333)

Justification/excuse: Stupid computer. (Or operator)

Lame rating: 6

NaNoWriMo - Day 19

Horrors of the real kind greet me this morning. Last night's save didn't work and I lost over 3,500 words.

Somehow I managed to dig into the computer and retrieve a Temp file. I still don't know how to auto save a REAL copy of my stuff.

I hate retyping old material at the best of times. Having to retype more garbage would totally drain me.

Number One Competitor: 31,208

Coops: 37,503 (NaNo wants 31,667)

Justification/excuse: Slogging along whinging and complaining and hoping 10% can be salvaged.

Lame rating: 5

NaNoWriMo - Day 18

Found another idea. Then I wasted a fair bit of time on a Satanist site. All I wanted was the name of a demon but I ended up reading the stuff they believe in for an hour. I sent a link to No.1 Competitor so she could have a laugh too. (And to waste her time as well)

Then it was back to more forced conversation. I think a lot of it is destined to be binned after a quick edit. Possibly there is stuff in there that will spark something off later. It'll go in the 'desperate for ideas' bin.

I'm finding it difficult to swap from the latest edit of Fatal Cure where I'm trying to cut out extra words and tighten up the action, to a rambling bunch of crap that isn't going anywhere.

Number One Competitor: 30,049

Coops: 33,743 (NaNo wants 30,000)

Justification/excuse: Just want to finish. Not enjoying it at all. Wish No. 1 would finish first so I can give up.

Lame rating: 2 (I feel lame.)

NaNoWriMo - Day 17

Competition is hotting up again.

Number One Competitor: 29,263

Coops: 30,450 (NaNo wants 28,333)

Justification/excuse: Using an edit to add a few words here and there. Need to mind dump a few more ideas though.

Lame rating: 7 (edited). Thank you for picking up on my mistake. The re-weighted lame rating is in effect.

NaNoWriMo - Day 16

With the halfway point come and gone you'd think there'd be a feeling of relief. But words only come slower when you've used most of them up. Not to mention the enthusiasm. Repeat after me, I will not drop out.

Number One Competitor: 26,052

Coops: 29,294 (NaNo wants 26,667)

Justification/excuse: Grinding it out.

Lame rating: 0

NaNoWriMo - Day 15

At the halfway point and more than halfway finished. If I continue at this pace it will all be over soon and I'll be able to concentrate solely on Killer Serials.

I might have to try typing and thinking at the same time.

Number One Competitor: 24,551

Coops: 27,995 (NaNo wants 25,000)

Justification/excuse: None today,

Lame rating: 0

NaNoWriMo - Day 14

Tomorrow is the day we were striving to finish by. I won't be able to do it. I managed to get another Fatal Cure chapter out and that feels like real progress.

Number One Competitor: 23,303 (How did you manage to go backwards?)

Coops: 23,745 (NaNo wants 23,333)

Justification/excuse: Should have maintained that lead. Tomorrow will be that much harder.

Lame rating:5

NaNoWriMo - Day 13

The NaNo is a chance to write outside my normal range. I have stopped myself discarding or even assessing idea based on their merits. If I think of a subject, even fleetingly, I make myself write about it.

Number One Competitor: 23,307

Coops: 23, 384 (NaNo wants 21,667)

Justification/excuse: Just had to push it past No. 1 didn't I. And the best thing is I get to post this regardless of any further advancements on her part tonight.

Lame rating: 1