Write1Sub1--Month 11: November (+NaNoWriMo)

I didn't expect to write a new short story for November; instead I fully expected to concentrate on my NaNoWriMo story. And that's what happened.

However, somewhere in the last week I fell off--I was ahead of the NNWM daily word count up to mid-month, but about 7 days went by that I didn't write a single word, and a few had word counts so pitiful, they might as well had been 0 days.

It ended up that I had 35k on day 29 and had to write over 15k on the last day--which I did! So cutting it closer than ever before, I made 51k somewhere between 10 & 11pm on the last day.

Phew!

The result: a super rough first draft--horrifically so (although now that I've been editing it for the past week plus, it's not as horribly mangled as I remember).

I'm currently editing chapter 12 of 20, with plans to have a beta-readable copy by Dec-15.

I've fallen off a bit over the past 2 days but with a steady daily average of almost 2 chapters/day from here on, I'll be fine. Unfortunately, this is just a story/event timeline edit, and it definitely needs a prose edit before going to beta hands. Heck, I'm even embarrassed emailing backup copies to myself, paranoid such a raw form might one day be discovered.

This particular story is special to me--it is a collaborative effort between my husband and me: he's the originator of the story--a super marketable idea I thought--and he provided me the partial skeleton. I'm making a breathing being out of this thing.

I can't wait 'til it's ready to be queried to lit agents--I really have a lot of faith in this story selling easily (unlike my current single polished novel which I'm sure will one day find a home, later than sooner).

December's not looking too good for W1S1 either! (Although I might attempt squeezing one in once the current novel's in beta hands and before the Xmas festivities).

My motivation for W1S1 has been waning anyway--after writing about 18 new stories, submitting 17 of them and having sold none of them so far, my fire has faded.

I honestly think only about 5-7 of them are sellable to good markets (which is still a good amount considering this is my first year seriously writing short stories).

W1S1 has been super successful for me despite the lack of sales, but I can't keep it up next year.

I may or may not still attempt a few anthologies but I'm definitely concentrating on novels next year as laid out in this post.

ETA--Made 15 short story submissions in November.

Write1Sub1--Month 10: October

So I did indeed write 1 new story in October and subbed the new story by the end of the month--literally.

I'd wanted to write 2 or 3 new pieces, especially since I was so tickled by the ideas of 2 anthologies (Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations & Evil Jester Press: Attic Toys Anthology) but I came up empty for both.

I could have tweaked a current story for one of them but by the last day, I actually didn't care anymore--I was so distracted by planning for NaNoWriMo.

The one new story I wrote mid-month ended up taking a lot out of me and I believe I jinxed myself when I mentioned on the AW forum my betas get back to me the same day I give them the story because my beta hasn't gotten back to this particular one yet!

Nevertheless, I did make the Borderlands 6 anthology deadline by subbing the new story to them on October 31st (originally intended for Pedestal but they closed to submissions earlier than expected. Story ended up longer than their max in any case once editing was done!).

I also didn't bother with working on anything for the Penumbra call for stories involving Shakespeare in some way because they still have my story from the last call and I haven't heard anything since the notice that it got moved to the second round/senior editor (didn't make the final cut for the AW anthology by the way).

I also submitted last month's story to Glimmer Train earlier this month so I guess I made 2 out of the 6 markets I'd been thinking about.

In addition, I subbed the heck out my older stories this month: made 20 submissions total, with 19 stories currently out (although I suspect it will be back up to 20 before the night is up). I'm expecting a few stories to come home to roost soon but of course I'm ready with a market to send them right back out to as soon as they get in.

I don't really have any particular markets in mind in November for short stories--perhaps Penumbra's call re: Animals--but it's mostly about NaNoWriMo this month.

Write1Sub1: The Novel Edition

So, Samuel aka "Izz" on AW began this thread regarding a novel version of W1S1. Of course since novels are so much more complex when it comes to planning out goals beyond NaNoWriMo, there are no actual set guidelines--only that one writes, edits/revises as needed and subs in whatever time frame works, 1 novel or many.

I thought about the challenge for a while then came up with the following plan:

There are 5 novels I want to work on and get to the querying stage: SQ, TP, PoN, BC & M (I'm a bit superstitious about putting their names 'out there' before completion). The plan below has this happening by January 2013, 1 year and 3 months from now which seems possible since 3 of the 5 have had work done (35-52k words written) so only 2 are completely new.

November 2011 (NaNoWriMo): Write new novel (SQ)

December 2011: Edit/revise/beta-test SQ,

Outline, then revise/edit NNWM '10 novel draft (TP)

January 2012: Continue SQ edits, then QUERY SQ

February 2012: Continue TP edits, beta-test TP

March 2012: QUERY TP

April 2012: Work on NNWM '07 novel draft: PoN (write/revise/outline)

May 2012: Continue PoN edits, beta-test PoN

June 2012: QUERY PoN

July 2012: Work on NNWM '08 short story collection: BC (write more stories)

August 2012: Continue work on BC stories, beta-test individual stories

September 2012: QUERY BC

October 2012: Outline/plot new novel (M) *NB-possible re-incarnation of NNWM '09 novel draft attempt: EoS

November 2012 (NaNoWriMo): Write new novel (M)

December 2012: Edite/revise M, beta-test M

January 2013: QUERY M

Looking good! I've got to get some solid outlines going to accomplish this so I'm really working on those.

Write1Sub1--Month 9: September

I managed to write 3 pieces for the month: 1) the story intended for the Fish Anthology but finished one day too late came in at around 2600 words, 2) an adaptation of an old animation feature idea of mine for Enchanted Conversation's Little Red Riding Hood theme which ended up clocking in at about 1600 words, and 3) a super-short around 340 words inspired by the Troy Davis debacle.

I ended up making a good chunk of the September deadlines I wanted to make:

- AW Anthology (which I subbed in August and which has gone on to the 2nd round)

- Penumbra: Sports/Games theme (which also made it to the 2nd round)

- Wily Writers: Lovecraftian Horror (subbed a sitting story last minute)

- On the Premises: Myths & Legends (subbed a sitting story last minute)

- Enchanted Conversation: LRRH (subbed the adaptation last minute)

I missed only 2 deadlines: NPR and BayCon--BayCon because I didn't want to tie up a story to vie for a single spot, NPR because the prompt simply didn't inspire me (although 2 ready-made pieces could have possibly been submitted. I'd rather submit them to traditional pubs though).

Total # of September submissions: 11.

I'm expecting a whole lot of responses in October. Seriously, a LOT--mostly the major ones I've been looking forward to for a while (such as TNY, GT, MoD). And especially since I managed to make my goal of having 20 stories out simultaneously on October 2nd.

By the way, I also made my 100th submission for 2011 on October 1st. No, couldn't wait 'til the October post to say it!

As for October deadlines I'm looking forward to writing new pieces for (already missed 2 due Oct 1st):

- Pedestal Magazine (due 10/14)

- Penumbra: Shakespeare (due 10/31)

- Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations (due 10/31)

- Evil Jester Press: Attic Toys (due 10/31)

- Borderlands Press: Darkly Imaginative fiction (10/31)

Looks like a pretty dark month--most with Halloween deadlines, most wanting dark tales.

Luckily, I already have an idea laid out for Pedestal (a story intended for a market that closed unexpectedly), and I'll probably submit an older piece to Borderlands. I just have to manage my time so I'm not scrambling near month's end to finish two of the remaining or having to choose just one to concentrate on!

Write1Sub1--Month 8: August

While still officially a W1S1 monthly (committed to writing at least 1 new story per month and submitting 1--old or new), I've been aiming to do at least 2 per month. But due to July's inspiring results, I silently aimed to equal its short story output in August (4 new stories written and subbed).

With at least 5 contests/anthologies I was interested in submitting to, I thought for sure I'd be able to get at least 3 new pieces done. Which I did!

Unfortunately, I didn't get to submit to 2 of the markets I wanted to submit to the most:

Uncle John's Flush Fiction & Dagan Books: Fish Anthology--the former because I waited 'til the last minute then couldn't make the submission deadline because they only took postal subs which I noticed too late, the latter because I couldn't get an ending together to the piece I'd been working on for it. I figured out a sort of ending on Sep-1--too late for the deadline and to count for August, but hey--I'm already officially done with my September W1 (although the ending still needs some work).

Anyway, of the 3 new stories, one initially ended @ about 1300 words but grew to 1700 before the month was done, the second remained a flash story @ 1200 words (the zombie girl idea) and I ended up submitting it to one of the other anthologies I really wanted to submit to. The 3rd, a short story ending @ 3600 words--one of my favorite stories of the year so far: a fantasy/sci-fi tale around a circus.

Still, Redstone's Identity Crisis contest failed to inspire me, and Penumbra's call for submissions regarding The Arts inspired me a little but not enough (I struggled with a still-unfinished half-baked story) so I missed 4/5 markets I'd been keeping an eye on and thought had such potential.

Oh well--sometimes deadlines inspire me to 'git 'er done' fast, sometimes they freeze me and I get absolutely stuck 'til its too late.

Still, there are several contests/anthologies with September or early October deadlines I'm keeping in mind and can either submit something older to or write something new for:

- Penumbra: Sports/Games theme (pro-market)- due 09/15

- BayCon Program (pro-market)- due 09/15

- On the Premises: Myths & Legends (semi-pro to pro)- due 09/30

- Enchanted Conversation: Red Riding Hood (pro-market)- due 09/30

- Wily Writers: Lovecraftian Horror (semi-pro to pro)- due 09/30

- Tin House: Weird Science (pro-market)- due 10/01

- Rainstorm Press: Mutation Anthology (semi-pro)- due 10/01

- Literary Landmark: Poe Anthology (pro-market)- due 10/01

Wait--what am I doing here? 8 and most of them pro-paying? I better get back to writing/plotting!

To be honest, I already have something I can send to about half of these and just have to decide what goes where (and hope some pieces currently out come back with a response in time).

Well, let's see how many of these deadlines I can make!

I hope to finish at least 3 new pieces by the end of this month regardless.

Write1Sub1--Month 7: July

And I thought June was a mega-month...well, subs-wise it still reigns--July however, had me vomiting stories it seemed over the course of two weeks.

I suspect the double-shot Rockstar energy drinks I was knocking back had something to do with my productivity, but after coming up with a flash story (@1k) in week 1 for a contest, I ended up completing three new "full-sized" stories within four days in week 2, one clocking in at 2600 words, the next at 3100, the last at 4600--my longest in a while. I also started plotting another.

What also made me very happy about this month was that I ended up subbing to Glimmer Train, The New Yorker, and the Writers of the Future Contest--all markets I wanted to get something into sooner than later.

I also submitted to a fun anthology (along with 1200+ others!), re-submitted a few older stories, completely re-wrote an older story today and submitted it in time for the deadline today.

Total subs this month: 11 (although I still have 4 hours to do more damage, muahahaha).

I also came up with a lot of pieces with potential in the past 2 weeks (although I'm not banking on any of them just yet since pieces don't mean much until the mapping and/or end comes).

One surprised me by its content, inspired by an upcoming Lost Civilizations anthology and looks like it will end up pretty long based off of the plotting thus far.

Earlier this week I also figured out a direction for an upcoming contest entry (Road to Eerie theme) and got an idea where to go with a prompt from AW's Flash Fiction Fortnight.

And just yesterday, a lightbulb went off and a random zombie piece that popped into my head sometime in June (also a surprise) showed me its direction.

Plus, today, while I was re-writing my old dud, an entirely new piece elbowed its way into my time--another surprise piece, this one involving soothsayers.

My old spec habits are returning full force it seems...

I'd really like to continue somewhere along these lines, constantly inspired by prompts, contests, anthologies and themes, productivity pushing me to W1S1 weekly status.

So far, 12 new stories for the year (13 if counting the rewrite), and a good chunk of deadlines coming up August through September (at least 10), so hand me those double-shot Rockstars!

Write1Sub1--Month 6: June

June was a mega-month of sorts; I made a record-breaking number of short story submissions for one (24--5 more than April), and managed to write a new short story in the nick of time: a story began on the 26th finished on the 30th. It hasn't been subbed yet, requiring a lot of editing still (in fact, I still haven't put it all together--partially written on the computer, partially written in a notebook). Still, the 24 submissions of a dozen stories more than makes up for that I think.

Thanks to sim-sub allowance and fast responses!

I also subbed some old poetry (4), bringing the June submission total to 28.

So far, 8 new stories in 6 months; more than on track for my monthly W1S1 commitment.

Write1Sub1--Month 5: May

I suppose I was a bit disappointed in myself, hence the late update for May; I'd been doing so well.

Although I worked on a few short stories during the month, I did not actually complete any of them. Complete for me means a beginning, middle and end of some sort, and the one I'd been working on the most (Pig to the Slaughterhouse) reached 2k still lacking an ending. It felt like I'd gone in the wrong direction in fact; hence the ending eluding me I suppose.

However, I can't exactly call May a failed month since I made ten submissions of five of this year's stories.

No sales this month, and lots of rejections coming in due to the high number of submissions the previous month, but hope still alive.

I know I'll make up for this month's lack of new output.

Just remembered: one distraction in the month of May was a novel idea that kept commanding my time, feeding me bits and pieces of what it is, what it will be. Learning about this novel bit by bit had me in a sort of spell as it teased me with glimpses I ran to write down. I can't wait to get back to it.

Actually, I'm not sure if this happened in May or June or both...

Write1Sub1--Month 4: April

A successful month--particularly so. I was done with my W1S1 goal before the first week was done, submitting two newly written flash pieces by April 6th. At that rate, I thought I'd get at least 4 new pieces written and subbed by the end of the month and worked toward that goal, starting two new pieces--one of which is almost done, the other still waiting on some probably unnecessary research. I probably could have made it but was ruled by anxiety for the next 2-3 weeks--cricket season was in full force. I was so anxious waiting on market responses, I ended up working on older pieces and submitting like crazy. Seriously--I'd never imagined anything like it...not this soon anyway.

Now I've calmed down about the crickets even though I have 20 pieces still out (submitted a total of 30 pieces between hint fiction, flash fiction, short stories and poems).

The Breakdown

Of the 5 flash stories submitted this month (all still pending responses + 1 from Feb):

- 2 new (April 2011) pieces

- 1 newish (Jan 2011) piece

- 2 super old (2002) pieces

Of the 7 short stories submitted (all still pending responses):

- 3 newish (Jan-March 2011) pieces

- 3 older (2008-2010) revised/adjusted short story pieces

- 1 super old (2002) piece

Of the much shorter works:

- 16 poems (6 still pending responses, 1 acceptance so far--my first!)

- 2 hint-fic pieces (1 still pending response)

Actual total number of submissions between the 30 pieces: 38 (includes re-subs, sim-subs).

So yeah--pretty happy with this month's output!

ETA--2011 monthly subs comparison:

# of January submissions: 5

# of February submissions: 8

# of March submissions: 1

# of April submissions: 38 (19 = flash/short story subs, 19 poem/hint-fic subs)

Write1Sub1--Month 3: March

I made it for March just in the nick of time. It was another successful month, having written one (03/30) and submitted it (03/31). It was also successful in that I was finally able to venture outside of my usual mainstream/literary direction into genre fiction...a tad.

I wrote a piece that I'm still not sure what it is exactly, but it pretty much fits dark fantasy, psychological horror, and supernatural/paranormal horror.

One of my readers said it was his favorite piece of mine so far (and he's read one of my novels and eight of my other short stories/flash-fic pieces)--that it felt more complete than my other shorts.

I must admit, this one took the longest to work out; after thinking about it for a while, it took me several days to write out random pieces and ideas (still without an ending), and a few more days re-working it and finally finding an ending. For a piece on the shorter side (2k), that's a lot of time for me; something this size usually takes 1-3 days to sort out and feel 'finished.'

I also broke my write2sub2 streak this month; however, I feel like I will more than make up for it in April, having several deadlines I want to make.

In fact, I just wrote my first new piece for April today (04/03) but more on this later.

Write1Sub1--Month 2: February

Another successful month!

Since I'd written and submitted 2 new pieces last month, I wanted to repeat the task this month and pulled off a story for a Writer's Digest contest on 02/10, and one for Enchanted Conversation on 02/24.

At this point I have already surpassed last year's total short story output; in fact, I think I only wrote one new short story last year (for NPR's 3 minute fiction contest).

Currently, I have a total of six short stories in submission (four of those new--written this year), with results possibly coming in March through June.

I want lots of stories in rotation this year; I feel an acceptance coming on soon. Already I had an editor's interest in one of my stories (no longer in submission due to editing plans) which I haven't resubmitted yet but will in a few.

Contest deadlines really help my productivity so I'll keep an eye out for contests deadlines every month so I can keep this up; I'd be one happy camper if I manage 24 new short stories this year.

Write1Sub1--Month 1: January

So I promised to write one new short story and submit a story (new or old--not sure) every month for the year. My new January story came in response to an NPR 3-minute fiction call past mid-month. I wrote a short short/flash on 01/18, revised it and submitted it 2 days later. My write1sub1 challenge for the month was complete! But I went ahead and submitted an older story to three new markets the same day anyway. Just because. And then I figured, since I'd subbed 2, I'd make January a write2sub2 month--especially since I wanted to make Glimmer Train's standard submission cut-off date. I thought and thought, brainstormed and brainstormed and as usual, had plenty of ideas, but didn't know where to go with them.

Then suddenly at around 2am in the early morning of 01/27, one week after the 'big' submission day on 01/20, a story came and told me it had a direction. I worked on it for about 3 days, and was able to submit it on time to count for this month, and make GT's January deadline.

So that's a total of 5 submissions for the month! I'm very happy about it since it's 3 stories to 5 markets instead of just one story submitted to 5. Definitely a good start for me.

Now, I have to find similar impetuses for February I guess; I had NPR and Glimmer Train driving me in January.

Writing Resolutions

I have so many resolutions I couldn't make just one list--I had to break them into three categories to help manage/track them all, including: health and beauty (which is further broken into two sub-categories), career (the one currently bringing in money), and writing, with a list of at least 5 to 10 resolutions each.

Here are the ones related to writing:

1) Read at least 50 books over the course of the year

2) Keep subbing novel 1 (TPA)

3) Finish/start subbing a second (BC) and third novel (PoN)

4) Write1Sub1--Light Ray (which is kind of a 2-in-1 resolution: writing and submitting short stories. For this one in particular, I've resolved to write at least one short story per month, and submit that story to a market at some point in the year).

5. Participate in NaNoWriMo 2011 in November.