Final Drafts Finished:
This Year:
1. "Disambiguation" (poem)
2. "Silver Night Train" (poem)
3. "The God of Suburbia" (poem)
4. "Crepusculum" (flash)
5. "Queen" (novelette)
6. "Horses" (novelette)
7. "Shang Hai" (novelette)
8. "Her Deepness" (novelette, completely rewritten from short story)
Last Year:
1. "Blackberry Sweet" (flash)
2. "Teslated Salishan Evergreen" (flash)
3. "Her Deepness" (short story)
4. "Take Your Daughters To Work" (short story)
5. "Summer of Love" (novelette)
6. "The Four Hundred Thousand" (novelette)
7. "The Unattainable" (novelette)
8. "The Ruins of Love" (novella)
It looks like I tend to write about 8 new things a year (I don't have stats for 2005, but I think it was around the same number, maybe lower - and I'm not counting the 50k words of the novel I wrote this year). Not bad, and I don't see any need to force myself to write a higher amount next year. Quality and fulfilling obligations to invites by editors/markets should be my concerns, not quantity. I'd rather write a couple of very good stories than twenty mediocre ones. The mediocre stories might sell just the same, but that's beside the point: there's too much mediocrity out there already. No need for me to contribute to it.
It also looks like I'm more comfortable with the novelette (7500-14,000 words) than short story (under 7500 words). This isn't much of a surprise, but it means I have to take into consideration that there will be less markets for me to submit them to. Many of the best markets have a 4000 word limit, and I just have to either accept that I won't be published in them, or force myself to write shorter stories. At this point, I don't think it's necessary to force anything. I'm happy with what I'm writing, and I'm selling it, so that's fine.
Submitted:
As usual, I don't keep track of submission figures, I just try to keep writing work that is submission-worthy, and keep sending them back out if they return. What's important is that this year I only wrote one story that I had to abandon because I got it wrong with the first draft ("Crepusculum") - and it was only a momentary trunking, as it's now in rewrites for a new market. This is a HUGE improvement in my level of skill at assessing/editing my work as I go. I should be submitting a higher number of stories next year - "Shang Hai", "Her Deepness", "Queen" and "Crepusculum" will all start going out in January, which will be the most stories I've ever had in submission at a single time.
Rejected:
Some. As I've said before, I don't keep track of rejections, except in terms of advice given to me by editors, and any requests to see more material in the future.
Sold:
This Year:
1. "Brimstone Orange" (as a reprint to PseudoPod)
2. "The Unattainable" (to Cowboy Lover: Erotic Stories of the Wild West)
3. "The Four Hundred Thousand" (to Subterranean Online, Fall 2007)
Previous Year:
1. "Teslated Salishan Evergreen" (A Field Guide to Surreal Biology)
2. "Take Your Daughter to Work" (Subterranean Magazine #6)
3. "Jetsam" (Sybil's Garage #4)
Three sales a year isn't bad. I don't write quickly, so I don't expect this figure to get higher next year. If I hit three again in 2008, that'll be great.
Published:
This Year:
1. "Take Your Daughter to Work" (in Subterranean Magazine #6)
2. "Jetsam" (in Sybil's Garage #4)
3. "The Unattainable" (Cowboy Lover: Erotic Stories of the Wild West)
4. "Brimstone Orange" (podcast on PseudoPod)
5. "The Four Hundred Thousand" (in Subterranean Online, Fall 2007)
Previous Year:
1. "At the Edge of Ellensburg" (novella, erotica)
I can't control this aspect of the business, so there's no real goal here. Things get moved in and out of publishing schedules all the time, so I can't say I want "X" things published next year. I hope that something of mine will be published next year - I just can't say what it will be, or how many times it'll happen. I just have to make sure I'm continuing to write and submit stories so that I will continue to be published.
Raymond Chandler's Law:
It takes writing a million words of shit before you become a professional writer - or so the saying goes. Supposedly attributed to Raymond Chandler - I've never been able to find the exact quote or positive proof that he said it. But I like it. I've come to interpret it as this: you should expect to write about a million words before you really find your voice, your "groove", and begin to write publishable fiction on a regular basis. I think for me this is an accurate assessment.
To date, I've written about 633,000 words - last year it was 545,000 words, so the increase is very, very small - I wrote 88,000 words in 2007. However: I've published 59,319 words - up by almost 100% from 28,499 published words as of last year. In other words, 9.36% of all the words I've written have been published - up from 5.2% last year. 9.36% is, in my opinion, a far more significant number than how many words I wrote. I'm being published more. That's what counts.
Tomorrow, I'll post my goals for 2008.
This Year:
1. "Disambiguation" (poem)
2. "Silver Night Train" (poem)
3. "The God of Suburbia" (poem)
4. "Crepusculum" (flash)
5. "Queen" (novelette)
6. "Horses" (novelette)
7. "Shang Hai" (novelette)
8. "Her Deepness" (novelette, completely rewritten from short story)
Last Year:
1. "Blackberry Sweet" (flash)
2. "Teslated Salishan Evergreen" (flash)
3. "Her Deepness" (short story)
4. "Take Your Daughters To Work" (short story)
5. "Summer of Love" (novelette)
6. "The Four Hundred Thousand" (novelette)
7. "The Unattainable" (novelette)
8. "The Ruins of Love" (novella)
It looks like I tend to write about 8 new things a year (I don't have stats for 2005, but I think it was around the same number, maybe lower - and I'm not counting the 50k words of the novel I wrote this year). Not bad, and I don't see any need to force myself to write a higher amount next year. Quality and fulfilling obligations to invites by editors/markets should be my concerns, not quantity. I'd rather write a couple of very good stories than twenty mediocre ones. The mediocre stories might sell just the same, but that's beside the point: there's too much mediocrity out there already. No need for me to contribute to it.
It also looks like I'm more comfortable with the novelette (7500-14,000 words) than short story (under 7500 words). This isn't much of a surprise, but it means I have to take into consideration that there will be less markets for me to submit them to. Many of the best markets have a 4000 word limit, and I just have to either accept that I won't be published in them, or force myself to write shorter stories. At this point, I don't think it's necessary to force anything. I'm happy with what I'm writing, and I'm selling it, so that's fine.
Submitted:
As usual, I don't keep track of submission figures, I just try to keep writing work that is submission-worthy, and keep sending them back out if they return. What's important is that this year I only wrote one story that I had to abandon because I got it wrong with the first draft ("Crepusculum") - and it was only a momentary trunking, as it's now in rewrites for a new market. This is a HUGE improvement in my level of skill at assessing/editing my work as I go. I should be submitting a higher number of stories next year - "Shang Hai", "Her Deepness", "Queen" and "Crepusculum" will all start going out in January, which will be the most stories I've ever had in submission at a single time.
Rejected:
Some. As I've said before, I don't keep track of rejections, except in terms of advice given to me by editors, and any requests to see more material in the future.
Sold:
This Year:
1. "Brimstone Orange" (as a reprint to PseudoPod)
2. "The Unattainable" (to Cowboy Lover: Erotic Stories of the Wild West)
3. "The Four Hundred Thousand" (to Subterranean Online, Fall 2007)
Previous Year:
1. "Teslated Salishan Evergreen" (A Field Guide to Surreal Biology)
2. "Take Your Daughter to Work" (Subterranean Magazine #6)
3. "Jetsam" (Sybil's Garage #4)
Three sales a year isn't bad. I don't write quickly, so I don't expect this figure to get higher next year. If I hit three again in 2008, that'll be great.
Published:
This Year:
1. "Take Your Daughter to Work" (in Subterranean Magazine #6)
2. "Jetsam" (in Sybil's Garage #4)
3. "The Unattainable" (Cowboy Lover: Erotic Stories of the Wild West)
4. "Brimstone Orange" (podcast on PseudoPod)
5. "The Four Hundred Thousand" (in Subterranean Online, Fall 2007)
Previous Year:
1. "At the Edge of Ellensburg" (novella, erotica)
I can't control this aspect of the business, so there's no real goal here. Things get moved in and out of publishing schedules all the time, so I can't say I want "X" things published next year. I hope that something of mine will be published next year - I just can't say what it will be, or how many times it'll happen. I just have to make sure I'm continuing to write and submit stories so that I will continue to be published.
Raymond Chandler's Law:
It takes writing a million words of shit before you become a professional writer - or so the saying goes. Supposedly attributed to Raymond Chandler - I've never been able to find the exact quote or positive proof that he said it. But I like it. I've come to interpret it as this: you should expect to write about a million words before you really find your voice, your "groove", and begin to write publishable fiction on a regular basis. I think for me this is an accurate assessment.
To date, I've written about 633,000 words - last year it was 545,000 words, so the increase is very, very small - I wrote 88,000 words in 2007. However: I've published 59,319 words - up by almost 100% from 28,499 published words as of last year. In other words, 9.36% of all the words I've written have been published - up from 5.2% last year. 9.36% is, in my opinion, a far more significant number than how many words I wrote. I'm being published more. That's what counts.
Tomorrow, I'll post my goals for 2008.
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