I just got a rejection from Dark Recesses Press after 177 days. I had submitted that story before the hard drive crash and as a result of said crash, I had totally forgotten where I had sent the bloody thing. I figured it would eventually come back as a rejection because the story was rather lame, but after so much time had gone by, I had nearly forgotten about it. I think this is the first time I am relieved at a rejection because since subbing that story, I've come to the conclusion that it SUCKS and the story needs to be retired. I would have hated to have that story represent me to potential new readers.
On the writing side, I spent tonight playing story tag team. I'd work on my Vermin story for a while and then when I hit a bump in the road, I'd jump over to another work in progress. When that one started to get difficult I jumped back to the Vermin story. Back and forth I went. Surprisingly, I got quite a bit done on both stories. The real test comes tomorrow, when I read over what I wrote and decide whether or not it's all crap.
6 comments:
It is actually a good way to make progress, isn't it.
I know the feeling about early stories. I'm soooo ashamed of some of the junk I used to write. Let's just forget those stories, huh?
Tell me if you liked bouncing between the two stories. Did that work for you? I do fairly well with two, but when I'm bouncing between, say, four, I know that I'm just screwing around.
-M
I retired a few stories recently. Evidently I went through a phase of "neat idea," crappy execution.
I don't know if I could bounce between two stories like that, but it sure sounds like a good way to progress. I know a lot of my writing time is me staring into space trying to work out the next line/scene/whatever, so maybe changing projects lets the subconscious work on those things while the conscious works on concrete here-and-now writing stuff. Or maybe I'm just saying words instead of talking sense. :)
I'm in the same camp as Nat (I wish). I've retired a bunch of stories recently that I still think had a decent idea at the core, but execution was rubbish.
Good luck with the bouncing.
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