Monthly Archives: December 2011

by

2011 The Year in Writerly review


Submissions sent last 12 months: 12
Submissions sent this month: 1
Acceptance ratio for the past 12 months: 18.18 %
Congratulations! Your overall acceptance ratio is higher than the average for users who have submitted to the same markets.

- my summary from Duotrope.com

Lest you think I left this post to the last minute, I’ll have you know I’ve been collecting links and working on it for a couple weeks now. It’s just that I don’t like to do my *official* end-of-year musing until… the end. And now it’s here. So I can muse with impunity.

Overall, I’d have to say that my writerly year went well. I’m not as far into editing Symbiosis as I’d hoped I would be. What I’d wanted was to be finished. But late in the game I decided on making some pretty big changes to the manuscript. Had I started with an outline or at least a rough idea of where I wanted to go with the story, this might not have happened. But at the beginning, I didn’t *know* where the story would go and I only had the dimmest idea of how to get the point of what I wanted to say across.

It wasn’t until I had written and then rewritten the synopsis a dozen times that I finally figured out what needed to be done. The synopsis was harder than writing the entire first draft! But it feels like a treasure map and I’m glad I did it and glad to be done with it.

My writing year in summary looks a bit like this:

Short stories:

  • 12 submissions
  • 3 acceptances
  • 1 withdrawal

Novel:

  • Edited through chapter 24
  • wrote synopsis
  • started over, began total rewrite and ended year only 25 done/350 estimated total.

It wasn’t until somewhere near the middle of the year when I got the bright idea to develop a sort of business plan for my writing career. My *plan* is still pretty diffuse right now, but even the act of thinking about it has led to making my blog more structured and easier to manage, greater productivity in words written toward short stories and novel wip, general attitude adjustment about making something writerly out of myself. I’m happy with my progress so far.

It’s helped tremendously to have a supportive family behind me this year, whereas in past years I’ve had to fight for my right to write in dignity. No one took me seriously before this year. Two things changed. 1.) One of my son’s friends expressed how cool it is that I write, which gave my son a whole new perspective and peer acceptability for his mom being weird in that way, and 2.) Robert entered my life. A third thing really made a big impact too. My own change in attitude. I began to take myself seriously. Really, without that, I don’t think anything else would have been possible.

Here are my blog page visit totals from the beginning of my blog’s inception:

Total

2008

390

2009

1,701

2010

18,155

2011

20,670

Only a little growth from 2010 to 2011, but some of that has to do with blog combing for a specific reason by specific people during 2010. So the numbers for that year are artificially elevated.

But the growth from beginning to present is excellent. You can really see where I started blogging regularly and with a clear direction. That’s also when I started working earnestly on my fiction.

These numbers may be paltry compared to someone with notoriety, but I feel pretty good about them.


When I wake up tomorrow, it’ll be 2012 and on Monday I’ll share my writerly plans for the future with you.

Here’s to a productive and successful 2012 for us all!

Here are some links to earlier end-of-year musing by other writerly sorts. If you have made resolutions and want to share, add your links to the comment section following this post:

Annie Bellet http://overactive.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/goals-for-the-new-year-2012/

Maggie Duncan http://unspywriter.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/resolved-to-write/

Amy Sundberg http://practicalfreespirit.com/2011/12/20/2012-life-lesson-trust-yourself/

Sarah P. Berling http://sarahthestoryteller.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/what-would-you-like-to-read/

Obscure Clearly http://obscureclearly.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/a-year-of/

by

100-words #FlashFriday Whoo-hooo! Go #Fictioneers!


Today’s 100 words were inspired by my complete and utter lack of ability to think of a Haiku for Jan’s blog the other day. Listen for the sound of maniacal laughter while you read my story. That’s me, losing my mind because I couldn’t think of anything clever in the form of 5-7-5 and it’s driven me crazy.

***

I’ve been using my flash as short story starters – have you been using yours to any end besides the fun we’re having on Fridays? I’m almost done with a short I started using the scenes I’d set in a combination of two prior flashes.

Now post a link to yours in the comment section of my story page and add your link to the comments of the other Fictioneer’s stories. Tweet your link, too, and add the #FridayFictioneers hashtag so we can easily find you and RT.

I’m always open to constructive criticism if you see mistakes or ways to improve upon what I’ve done. This is a learning exercise for me. However, not everyone feels that way, so if you don’t see an invitation to critique on their post, don’t do it. A lot of people just want and need encouragement!

We are the Friday Fictioneers and we gather every Friday here to post a very short story. It’s a great way to showcase your voice, but to do it in 100 word is almost an extreme challenge. It forces you to choose strong verbs and concise phrases.

Hop on board and post one of yours or visit ours, or do both.

by

Sacrificing Part to Save the Whole


This has been a week to savor.

I’ve only had to go into work for 1/2 a day on Wednesday, the kids have all been down south visiting their dad’s family for the holidays and I’ve had the house and land to myself.

Mostly what I’ve done with my time is write and edit Symbiosis.

But I’ve also savored the solitude, allowed the hermit in me to enjoy the quiet pleasures I don’t ordinarily get to do without the rush to go to work. Like collect the egg and tell the hen who laid it how much I appreciate her contribution to my diet. Ordinarily it’s after dark when I do this, or before dawn if I check eggs and feed in the mornings on my way to work.

Some of you might consider that to be a macabre thing to tell a hen when I’m essentially eating her ‘babies’. But that’s not true. When a hen isn’t broody, nor any of the hens in the flock are, they won’t set on the egg to make it hatch. They’ll walk away from it and it never grows into a chick.

When the hens are wanting to hatch out their eggs, I let them. However, here, too requires discernment. When one hen becomes broody they’ll all lay eggs in that hen’s nest. Soon the poor mother is sitting on a pile of eggs so high she can’t possibly keep them all warm enough to hatch.

If I take none, they all die. If I take some, those will of course not become chicks. But the ones I leave behind will have an excellent chance at becoming new life to carry on the endless cycle.

In nature there are predators to fill my role.

You might wonder how all this has anything to do with writing. Maybe it doesn’t to an average passer-by. But the concept of sacrificing part to save the whole has everything to do with the core concept of my work-in-progress, Symbiosis.

by

Photo Prompt for 100-word Flash #FridayFictioneers


Here’s the photo prompt for this week’s Friday Fictioneer’s:

Why only 100 Words

100-words isn’t a *rule* and some of us write more than that. My goal is to have The Friday Fictioneers use 100-word stories as an exercise in choosing concise phrases and strong verbs. It’s an excellent way to show your stuff to the world without exposing too much. It’s okay if you use more words, but if it’s much more let us know in the comments so we’ll know how to allocate our time if we’re trying to read all the posts.

Put your best efforts on display for 100 words (more or less) and hop on board tomorrow with links back to your blog so we can all see what you’ve written. If you don’t have a blog of your own you are welcome to post your 100 words in the comment section of my story’s post tomorrow.

If you accidentally post your link here on this page today, you’ll miss out on a lot of the blog hopping because the action will be stemming from links on the story page tomorrow.

How to become a Fictioneer

  1. Write a 100-word story (more or less, and it’s okay if you didn’t use this picture for inspiration)
  2. Post your story to your blog on Friday (or just link to it tomorrow if you wrote earlier)
  3. Comment on my story Friday and post a link to your story.
  4. Tweet your link and include the tag #FridayFictioneers if you’re on Twitter.
  5. Visit and comment on all the other stories that link to my story. If the comment forms allow, leave your link on all your comments, too so others can find you and us later on.
  6. Check back often because participants post throughout the day. (Or as I often have to do, read and comment later in the evening after getting home from the dayjob.)
  7. Get psyched up to do this again next week :)

You can click the tab at the top to read a little more about Friday Fictioneers.

I hope to see your creativity shining tomorrow!

by

One last rejection


Actually I’m glad to get it out of the way. Daily Science Fiction sent my rejection notice last night and it wasn’t a big surprise. I still think that would be an excellent place for my stories but I need to send shorter ones.

That’s the last rejection for 2011 because I won’t be sending anything else out this year. There’s one story still out that won’t come back until after January 1 unless the judges get an early jump and start the rejection process before the end of the contest closing date, so I’m relatively safe when I say that’s the end. Acceptances for that venue won’t be notified until around February or March. I have high hopes for this story, it’s one of my favorites. (I’m visualizing a WIN, Sarah).

Don’t worry, I haven’t quit writing and I certainly haven’t quit submitting.

I’m just focusing all my efforts (other than this blog and developing my business plan) on Symbiosis. This current round of edits will be the last and after that some polish and after that – THEN I’m back into the submission/ACCEPTANCE game.

When I go back to short stories I’m going to do it the way Mike Resnick suggested in his latest Bwana #15. Pretty tough advice. If you’re a writer, you should read it.

by

No mashup today


Today is going to be a task day for me to get some things done around home, since I have a day off from the day job. Bottled water for the cooler and propane are high on the list to procure while I’m out.

This time between Christmas and New Years feels different than I’ve ever noticed before. This is the first time I’ve had time off between the two holidays, so that could have something to do with it. It’s the first time at work that we’ve managed to get all our ordinary clients taken care of the week before so that we have very little on the schedule for this week. So we’re all taking shifts to go in and answer phones and be available to call out whichever analyst needs to come in to handle any samples that arrive.

I’ve found that if I have no reason to leave home, I’d like to just stay home. Its been since Thursday night that I last left – a record for me, ha. Pesky that things like water and heat have interrupted my hermit stretch.

Later today I’ll get to work more on Symbiosis. I got a lot of editing done yesterday on it, and hope to get a lot more done this afternoon.

Usually I collect the links for today’s mashup over the weekend and on Monday. But there were less posts from the places I normally haunt because of the holiday.

Y’all have a good day!

by

Writerly Goals Update


Last week recap

Last week, in spite of being a tough schedule because of holidays, I did meet my goal of 5 pages edited. In fact, I made one extra.

Yesterday I introduced a series I’m planning to do on my blog about developing a writer’s business plan. What started out with me being very leery about exposing myself for the control freak that I am turned into an awesome display of validation.

That morning I’d actually fumbled groggy-eyed with my iPhone trying to delay the post from going live (I had auto-scheduled it to post the night before), because I had last minute fears that y’all would think I’m crazy.

Well I’m glad I overslept and was too late to cancel it because apparently the post resonated with  more than just myself.  Whew. One day I’ll get over worrying what people think about me. Not. It just won’t happen. What will happen is that I’ll just get used to squashing that fear. And then one day maybe I won’t think about it so much.

I’ll begin posting the parts to my ‘Little Acorn’ Plan when I come back from Colorado at the end of January. Every Sunday I’ll blog about it until I’ve worked through the SBA template and translated all the applicable parts to writerly language. I might have to deviate from their structure because a writing career isn’t quite the same as opening a cafe’, although there are going to be a lot of instances that will parallel.

I can’t wait to rename it The ‘Mighty Oak’ Plan, but for now I’m just putting down a tap-root.

I’m still waiting to hear back from Daily Science Fiction. With the holidays I expect they might be longer in rejecting/accepting than usual, too. The story I submitted is really too long for a first attempt to get into the publication, so if it bombs, I’ll send them something shorter next time.

Unless I get samples in at work this week, my schedule will be more open than usual for the day job. However, with Rob’s R&R break coming up soon I may be more scatter-brained than usual because I’m so excited to be seeing him after almost six months of him being away and I have a lot to do before he gets here.

There’s a lot of things I forgot to put on my goal list last week. The other thing I did last week was get myself registered for Chicon7. This year I have money put aside for it, but if it’s really as good as I’ve heard it is, I’ll have to save every year to go.

This week’s goals:

  • Edit 10 pages of Symbiosis
  • Work on post pre-schedule for my vacation weeks
  • Work on the business plan

This year’s goals:

  • Finish editing Symbiosis
  • Have a plan for next year and foward

***

How’s your week shaping up?

by

Sunday Musings: A Writer’s Business Plan


A Writer’s Business Plan – Part I

Work In Progress

————————-

You might wonder why I’m bothering with my blog on Christmas day. Well, my family did Christmas last weekend so this weekend feels less like Christmas and more like a nice, peaceful opportunity to write and think.

The kids are all out doing their own things with other family members, so I’ve got some spare time to indulge in whatever I want.

What want is to up my odds for success at a writing career.

The musing I’m engaging in here today will ultimately be a gift I’m giving myself. The sense of control-of-my-own-destiny I get from it will lead to be a more relaxed me, so it’s going to be a gift to those closest to me as well. Everyone knows a happy, relaxed momma and mate is a great thing. And a controlling woman who at least is enjoying a delusion about being in control, well, that’s a good thing too.

I’m designing my writerly business plan. I’m plotting my career, not just a book.

Sounds a little tedious and over the top, I’m sure. That’s okay. I’m thinking in strategic, long-term view today and deciding how to plot the course of my future career in writing.

Optimistic yes?

Well, I’m feeling rather on top of things right now, so it’s a good time to plan.

For the first several weeks of the year I’m going to blog on Sundays (once I return from vacation) about this plan I’m devising and my progress in following it.

For today, the takeaway is this: A business plan is about the foundation of the business, not the product or service.

So to translate that to writerly terms: A writerly business plan is about the foundation of a writing career, not the stories.

How many of you have a plan? If you do, I’d love to know how you came up with it, what points were important to you. If you don’t you’re welcome to follow along with mine to see if it’s something you might like to do for yourself.

This is a trial and error endeavor since I haven’t found much on the net to help with my research. We’ll see in a couple of years whether it has done me much good to go to all the extra effort ;)

Work In Progress

Writers on board: