And so it begins...

[cdeb]

Thanks for the helpful comments Dave

Don't know whether you are a Mac or PC person but the free beta of the windows version is at the link below. There is a video to watch which give you a good idea about what you can do with the program.

www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivenerforwindows/

The long short story I have on the go at the moment is one that I see as part of my apprenticeship-as before this I have not got beyond 4 K. Even if I don't get it published, completing will be a good training exercise. Since I think the story is one of my best, it would be nice to see it in print somewhere, so after I have gone through the ritual of submission and rejection in the usual places, based on your insights on the short story market, I will seriously look into the Amazon option, rather than leaving it hidden.

When I am doing the second draft, it seems it will be worthwhile trying to cut out unnecessary content if this brings me to the 10 K magic threshold. We'll see. I am currently struggling with "mouse arm" repetitive strain injury, which has certainly taken some of the pleasure out of writing at the moment.

I can't find any trace of the competition I entered, so I am beginning to wonder whether they abandoned it, Hey ho.

CdeB

[newburydave]

Chris;

Another exercise that I would recommend you take a look at is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writers Month).

Its a worldwide, online writers scramble to each write a 50,000 word first draft of a novel in one calendar month (November).

There's a website National Novel Writing Month that explains it all, gives a lot of helpful resources and provides you with your own page to keep track of your wordcount.

Several of us participated last year from the Anomaly (Team Anomaly, yeah team!) and finished (won). I found it a very helpful discipline to learn. My current Novel (Zander Brythwaite) was the result. This is the one I'm trying to get critted in the Sandbox.

Check it out, it might be useful to you.

Write on my brother

SGD
dave

[cdeb]

I've dropped out at bit here, so a bit of a delay to answer your last comment Dave.

While my short story has now passed 15 K my busy job would unfortunately keep me away from the 50 K draft writing contest. But sometime it would be a good exercise.

I didn't win anything in the competition I entered, but I still wait for them mention the winners at their website. Last time (25 years ago,!!) I entered one of their competitions I did get my MS back with comments, so I hope for that this time too...but now will probably give my entry a run at the Anomalous Sandbox, as before submission elsewhere it surely will need expansion (it was only 2 K).

I came across a really interesting post on the SFWA website

www.sfwa.org/2011/10/guest-post-submission-statistics-an-inside-look/

The author shows statistics of submission and rejection. I actually found it very encouraging, cos it shows you just have to keep trying!!

I'll be around

CdeB

[cdeb]

There seems to be a decay in the rate of posting here...so a quick update.

Now got the paid for version of the writing software Scrivener. It has very generous EULA and it has been installed on all the computers at home due to this.

Re. competition:- Well, I read the winning entries and they were all well written stories -without a doubt- but "mundane". And here I am not making an accusation ;D just that my entry would have been so far "off the map" they were using it would have been in the next galaxy. My fault entirely...that and trying to shoehorn a much larger story into a 2000 word box. So this need to be expanded now when it was ruthlessly cut before!

Still struggling with repetitive strain which doesn't help the writing.

I occasionally write poetry. I have to be inspired, so it doesn't happen often. I was inspired on the bus to work and I sent the result to Asimov's, 'cos it was SF of a kind. Don't hold your breath

I am now reworking the first story I wrote in this current era (already bounced from Asimov's) and will try an on-line SF mag.

I have been doing research into the classic SF magazines, as advised by the friendly SF author I mentioned before.
F&SF: any of my stories would fit there, interesting. Though I couldn't supply them with the explicit sex that I found one story .
Asimov's Again my stories would fit, if they were good enough. It has a high bar, and its stories commonly are in the running for major awards.
Analog: Will need to do a lot of technical research to make sure the science is right here. Maybe if I could write something around my field of research it might be a possiblity. Decided to subscribe to it as the science articles are very helpful and useful in areas that I don't have scientific expertise.
Also checked out Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine show an online mag. High standards again, and due to his Mormon faith it has to be PG13, and it may be open to something with a spiritual dimension....
Then there was Interzone from the original homecountry...stopped subscribing to that when I got explicit gay sex...speaking of which I recently read an interview with the self-confessed anachist Norman Spinrad, one of the authors responsible for introducing such wholesome fare into SF. When challenged about whether he was still anachistic, he admitted there was no need anymore. The taboo's were all now accepted. Actually, if you were a real radical today Mr Spinrad, you'd be attacking secular liberal humanism the current status quo.. Enough of a rant, please continue (Ed.)

OK

My Novelette of 18,000 words is having a rest before a round of serious editing and am looking forward to getting back to it at Christmas when I will have more time (well after Christmas in fact does anybody with children have time before Christmas?!)

Oh, and I submitted an article to a writers mag and they accepted it...but it wasn't fiction .

CdeB

PS Because of my renewed interest in writing fiction, my wife delegated our annual Christmas letter to me to save her a job. Some you win, some you lose-but it was actually fun to do

[Kessie]

Cdeb: Oh no, not the Christmas letter! Where people make up mythical achievements that their family accomplished to as to impress the extended family? Hopefully yours was better than that. Nowadays, I see a Christmas letter and think of the song "Merry Christmas from Chiron Beta Prime" by Jonathan Coulton.

Good luck with your publishing agenda! Looks like you're shooting for the stars, and my hat's off to you.

Re: your remark about the taboo now being the status quo. Yes, the only real taboo out there now is Jesus. Isn't that always how it is? :-)

[cdeb]

Hi Kessie -writing SF we all shoot for the stars (groan).

Yes, I guess I am aiming high, and of course I don't know whether the raw talent I have can mature into something publishable. Or whether, even if it is publishable, it will get published;). A famous British writer, when asked about what was the secret of becoming a successful writer, said
"Well, I would put persistence above talent!"

The SF writer I talked to thought my ambitions realistic (given the premise that I can write, of course;) -the Sandbox will give u a clue about that:)). The path we discussed was 1-2 years rejection slips, followed by a similar time of rejection slips with small comments. And then, finally, publication. Followed by more rejection slips etc..
Oops, the bus has now reached its destination, so I will sign off...

[cdeb]

So time for another update...

Still didn't get my novelette re-drafted as I interrupted the story I was writing whilst the novette matured with another story, inspired after a visit to the dentist

That 'dental' story hit the 6K mark and co-incidently was the word limit for a UK competition for unpublished authors (the James White Award, actually open to anybody writing in English), so I entered it this week.

Went into my basement and got a revelation which if I had read it a year ago would have stopped my in my tracks re. writing, but now spurs me on to be persistent.

In our basement are some original copies of a UK SF magazine called Interzone, and here I found the 1st published story by UK SF writer Stephen Baxter (then S.M. Baxter). He is one of the UK's most successful authors and is currently president(or chairman) of the UKs British Science Fiction Association (BSFA). At the end of the story was a little bio which said something like this...
"S.M. Baxter tells us if we had rejected this story, it would have been his 482nd rejection ! As I said earlier in the thread, persistence seems to be rather important...

I will now return to my drafting my next story set in the town I grew up in..

CdeB

[newburydave]

Keep at it cdeb;

Don't know how it is in the UK, but with the exception of Amazon's Shorts category for Independent e-Publishers I don't think that most publishers accept novellas and novellettes any more here in the US.

Persist my brother

SGD
dave

[cdeb]

Thanks for the encouragement Dave.

Actually, I am wondering whether the extension to novelette length in my writing is that my subconciousness (and hopefully God through it) is preparing me to write books. Something that I hadn't planned at all... ;D

Chris

PS for completeness the poem I submitted to Asimov's bounced. Så är det (so it is)

[Kessie]

Well hey, keep at it! Breaking into publishing is hard. The more you write, the better you'll get. I laid my hands upon Techniques of the Selling Writer, by Swain. He talks about how starting to write is like starting to learn to play the piano, or learning to be a brain surgeon. It takes a lot of time and practice, and they don't send pre-med students in to do brain surgery.

[cdeb]

Thanks Kessie,

The Selling writer I have ;D along with just one or two other books on fiction writing . I figure I'm not going to make a writers conference anytime soon (well at least not in English) so I now have Self Editing for Fiction Writers, plus an Orson Scott Card one on character plus one by James Scott Bell on Plot and Structure plus...some of Jeff's tools. You may be able to tell my day job is research . I got the most rapid rejection I have ever experienced from OSCIGMS untill I realized it was because their server didn't like my IP address...so second time lucky (if we believed in such things)..they were very helpful and friendly fixing the submission problem anyway

CdeB

[cdeb]

PS Kessie,

You seem to have an Avatar. I am right in thinking you can only have one if you post a link to an image already on the web? I thought of putting one up, but I don't have the one I would like to use on the web...

[Kessie]

If you edit your profile, there's a little "upload avatar" thingy on there. I just used that. It's making one that's exactly 65x65 pixels that's a pain.

[yoda47]

I need to get the selling writer book..

MS Paint will resize photos.

Fotosizer will too, and it's free.

[cdeb]

Thx for help guys. I was obviously wrong about needing a link on web. I do have an avatar fro m ano ther set of boards I am on (which is right dimensions)....not a photo though, I should spare you that, at least ;D ;D