Posts about creative writing, including writing prompts and writing tips.
I guess I jinxed myself with my earlier post, because all my progress has ground to a halt… stupid health issues have left me tired and discouraged. I think about my stories, but can’t quite bring myself to work on them.
I’m currently re-reading the Harry Potter books in an effort to feel better. I’m nearly through the second one; it seems to help.
It’s been a very long time since I tried to get anything published. I had a few stories printed in obscure places years ago, but after Hurricane Katrina, I just stopped sending things out. It just didn’t seem important anymore.
Last summer, I wrote and sent out one story, a flash piece with the characters from my novel. It got rejected, which was somewhat expected given the competitiveness of the market; still, it was profoundly disappointing. A friend read the story and liked it, but wasn’t entirely sure it was working. So I put it aside and focused on the novel instead.
Fast forward a few months, and I spotted an opportunity that interested me — still very competitive, but I wanted to give it a try. (If you don’t believe me about “very competitive,” read the recap from the editor.) I knew it would be difficult, since I was still editing novel bits for a critique and I was behind schedule — and then my body decided to get sick two days before Christmas. One virus led to another, and I was sick for three weeks. I decided I’d have to take a pass on submitting.
But lo! An eleventh hour reminder from Cat Rambo inspired me, and I decided to give it a shot anyway. I pulled out the most likely candidate from my abandoned stories folder, gave it a 90 minute edit, and sent it on its way.
As I suspected, it didn’t make the cut, but the rejection didn’t really hurt. Editor C.C. Finlay said some kind things about it, which helped, and I think the knowledge that I rushed it out (and therefore can do better) made a difference too. I haven’t gone back to it yet because I’ve got a new story underway — but I will, in time, because I still feel like the story itself is good, even if I haven’t told it properly yet.
Now we’re in February, and — amazingly enough — I’ve sent out a second submission, thus doubling last year’s rate. Yesterday afternoon, Cat Rambo and Amanda C. Davis were impressing me on Twitter with their amazing submission stats, and then last night, I was hunting for something and ran across a flash humor piece I’d written a few years ago. It was a contest entry, and I’d never considered submitting it anywhere else. But it still made me laugh, so I tweaked it a very little bit and sent it out. I have no idea whether the market in question will bite, but I got a little rush from giving it a try. So we’ll see what happens.
And while I doubt I’ll reach the dizzy levels that Amanda and Cat maintain, hopefully I can make a habit of sending out more than one story a year.
Fingers crossed.
So, I’m weighing a decision at this point: do I continue creating and sharing a weekly writing prompt?
On New Year’s Day, I had pretty much decided to discontinue it, at least as a weekly feature. I feel like I want to do more than that with this space; I’d like to mix in more posts about writing (possibly to include reports of work in progress on the never-ending novel) and discussions of books and authors that interest me at the moment. And I feel like I’m not going to explore those areas as long as I stay committed to the weekly prompt.
But on the other hand, I can see from my stats that some of you are reading the prompts and presumably finding them helpful and interesting. So I’m going to think a bit more before I make a final decision.
In the meantime, I hope everyone is being more productive writing-wise than I am (thanks to a nasty cold and now a stomach bug). In case you need an idea to get you going, here are links to a few of my favorite prompts from the past year.
Happy writing!
It’s almost Christmas — and in the spirit of the season, this week I invite you to write about a little (or big) miracle. Write about a happy coincidence or fortunate accident. Write about a character extending a hand to help another and having that gesture come back to enrich his or her life in an unexpected way. Write about something going right just when it seems like everything’s gone wrong. Write about angels among us. Write something good and beautiful, and have a very merry Christmas.
