Dulemba Blog Guest Post

Hi! I'm over at Elizabeth Dulemba's blog today, talking about patience and writing Drift. She has amazing coloring books pages she's drawn and lots of interviews with authors -- it's a great site to check out.

Here's the start of my post:

Patience is an under-sung virtue in the publishing world.  Nearly a decade ago, I sat in a college classroom listening to a professor talk about how the Classic Maya envisioned the world as being on the back of a turtle, surrounded by a watery hell. I knew I had to write a story about that. (continue)

Eight

Once, at a writing conference, I learned that the woman I was chatting with was the mother of eight.  Upon hearing this, my first thought was amazement that she was upright, showered, and indistinguishable from any other woman at the conference. My second thought was to ask her for advice.

"How do you find time to write?" I asked.

"It is really hard," she said, nodding sagely like she got this question all the time.

I waited attentively for her pearls of wisdom.

The woman sighed. "There are just too many good books to read. I always get distracted. I'm working on it, though."

And that was it.

It's weird. Over and over it seems, I run into the often-loud opinion that it's impossible to write while there are small children in the house. I don't seem to find the same advice about demanding jobs or graduate degrees or volunteer work or playing DnD. In fact, the only position I've heard as routinely labeled as a black hole for writing is that of being SFWA president.

For me, at least, telling myself that "I'll write more when I'm less busy" or "I'll write when I'm feeling super-organized, inspired, and well-rested" has always been a bigger danger to writing than cuddling a newborn on the rocking chair. Whenever the echo of naysayers begins to creep in, I think of that mom of eight. There are dozens of things I do with my time everyday. I just need to make sure that writing is one of them.

SFWA Membership

I am now a member of SFWA.  It's kinda surreal.

Joining SFWA has been a goal of mine since I was thirteen.  I used to reward myself for meeting my writing goals by reading articles on the SFWA website.  I read all of them -- many times.  There were a good deal fewer articles then.

I learned that real writers submit stories and collect rejection letters.  When I got my first such letter, in all its form-like splendor, I saved it in a folder with pride.  I knew I probably wouldn't start selling anything until I had enough of those to wallpaper a room, but I was on my way.  Another article covered proper manuscript format.  I learned I should write, submit, and then forget about the submission and write something new.  Other articles covered bad contracts clauses, vanity presses, and other potential pitfalls.

In short, SFWA established good habits in my malleable young brain and helped me avoid scams.  And now I get to join them.  Just in time to vote for the Nebula Awards.

Steunenberg Trial and the Idea File

My post for December is up at Gem State Writers (click here).  Enjoy!

Short Story Primer, Part 4: Submit the Story

This post is part of a series:

1. Write and polish a short story.
2. Research the short story market.
3.Make a list of appropriate markets, and begin a submissions record.
4. Submit the story to the first market on the list, and keep submitting.

Here's the most important thing: read the submission guidelines.  If anything I say here contradicts the submission guidelines, follow the submission guidelines.

Submitting manuscripts is easier than it's ever been, thanks to electronic submissions.  There's no rush to the post office, no SASE...just a few clicks of a button.  Some magazines have an online form to fill out, but if they ask for an e-mail, here's roughly what it should look like:

TO: magazine@acceptanceletters.com
FROM: Me
SUBJECT: Submission: Story Title

Dear Editors,

I've attached "Story Title," a 3,000 word science fiction story.  Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
My Name
myname@google.com

If you have any fiction sales, you should include that ("My fiction has appeared in X, Y, Z").  Most magazines ask for attachments as a .doc or .rtf, with the story in manuscript format or some stated variant of manuscript format.

After submitting the manuscript, I highly recommend trying to forget about it.  Write something new.  Keep going.  When the response comes, you can either cheer or submit it to the next market on your list. Why submit it again, someplace new?

Editors have different tastes and different needs.  Once upon a time when I was reading slush, we got two zombie stories at the same time.  We published one.  We didn't take the other, because we already had something similar -- not because it was a bad story.  There may come a point to stop and edit the story again (which would be an entirely different post), but rejection letters are normal.  They are common.  And they never seem so bad, when there's another market to submit to.

Short Story Primer, Part 3: Make a List

This post is part of a series:

1. Write and polish a short story.
2. Research the short story market.
3.Make a list of appropriate markets, and begin a submissions record.
4. Submit the story to the first market on the list, and keep submitting.

After you've read up on markets for short stories, make a list of markets that buy stories of your genre and wordcount.  Put what you consider the best market at the top of the list, and end with the last place you'd be happy to submit to.  What's "best"?

I can't tell you that.  Maybe there's a magazine you love and have always wanted to be published in.  Maybe you want that short response time, because waiting three months sounds like torture.  Many writers start with pro-paying markets both for the pay and the wider exposure.

Once you've made a list, you need a way to keep track of your submissions.  Unless a magazine asks for a revision, the etiquette is to only submit a story once.  Record keeping is also important to avoid an accidental multiple or simultaneous submission.

I, at least, can't keep track of this in my head -- especially not for a dozen short stories.  There are a variety of ways to keep track of submissions (Duotrope.com, I believe, has a tracking method online), but I just use Excel:

		Date Sent	Date Expected/ Received	Response	Word Count
Story Title	Market 1	1-Sep-11	20-Oct-11	R	1,900
Potential Market A	Market 2	1-Nov-11	4-Nov-11	R
Potential Market B	Market 3	5-Nov-11	5-Dec-11	2nd round; R
Potential Market C	Market 4	5-Dec-11	6-Dec-11	R
	Market 5	6-Dec-11	26-Mar-12	2nd round; R
	Market 6	28-Mar-12	6-Apr-12	Personal R
	Market 7	24-Aug-12	24-Sep-12

 I changed all of these from actual market names, of course, but this is essentially how I keep submission records.  Under the story title, I list markets that the story could be sent to if the current market rejects it.  This makes turning a story around fairly easy.  I italicize any potential markets I have another story out at, so I don't accidentally send a multiple submission.  I bold the market a story's currently at, so it's easy to find.  It's also nice to have a quick reference of the date I should query if I haven't heard back from the market yet.

During this process of submitting, I occasionally check the Duotrope.com listings again.  Sometimes a magazine that was closed for submissions will open.  Anthologies also crop up.

Talent vs. Skill

I ran into yet another post arguing that writing isn't about hard work and persistence -- it's about inborn talent.

That argument drives me nuts.  Not only do I think it's untrue, but the talent-or-nothing paradigm hurts writers.   If writing is about inborn ability, the writer has no accountability.  It's out of your control.  Good writing is something that happens to you...or not.  Bad prose?  Nothing you can do about it -- it's in the stars.

On the other hand, if writing is a skill, then improvement is in the author's control.  You can write another story.  Gets some critiques.  Revise, rinse, and repeat.  You can take action.  When learning is a possibility, you can ask, "What can I do to improve?"

I don't think anyone succeeds as a writer without a lot of hard work.  Maybe a bucket of natural ability will get you there a little faster, but it won't get you there.

As evidence that writing can be learned, I submit this episode of Writing Excuses (click here).  This is the opening of Brandon Sanderson's first, unpublished novel.  It's...umm, well, the Writing Excuses does a great job ridiculing it.  Between that and Elantris, something changed, and I'm sure it took a lot of hard work, practice, and skill-honing.  Brandon Sanderson's now one of my favorite authors.

As a footnote, in my experience, the best writing teachers are those who learned something the hard way.  The author whose lecture taught me story structure?  He used to fumble with it.  The author with brilliant posts on point of view?  I asked her -- and she struggled with POV.  Because they didn't do these by instinct, they can happily articulate their skills to others.

Yes, writers likely have something they're naturally good at -- maybe someone has an ear for dialogue, or a knack for description.  But dialogue and description can still be learned. 

Finding Time to Write and Being Mom

Apparently the quest to find writing time never disappears.  As I learned on a recent Writing Excuses podcast, even full-time writers are pinched looking for an extra hour.  It's a topic I've seen pop up a lot, often with stay at home moms asking "how do I do this, too?"  Many conventional answers -- lunch breaks! -- don't apply.  Lunch is the thing that gets cold on the counter while I change diapers, fill sippy cups, and kiss ouchies all better.

But I'm still managing to write -- more than before I had two small children bouncing off the walls. I know everyone's situation is different, but here's how I manage:

1. Set goals.  I talked once about setting goals, but if you don't know where you want to go, you'll never get there.  This affected my writing output more than anything else.

2. Proactively evaluate goals.  If I miss my writing goals, I don't tell myself I just didn't have time.  That makes writing time seem like the weather: completely out of my control.  Instead, I fill in the blank: "I didn't meet my writing goal because I decided ___ was more important."  Then it's my fault.  And if it's my fault, I can fix it.  This also alleviates my guilt and frustration if I missed my goals for a good reason, like "I decided taking care of my sick child was more important."  I can exhale and assure myself I spent my time well. 

3. Get everything else done early. Once upon a time, I waited to fold laundry, load the dishwasher, and mix bread until the children were all asleep -- as if there's time to do those things, let alone write, before sleep deprivation makes my head spin.  Sometimes it's not easy, and sometimes it's frustrating, but I fold clothes with my kids (okay, they jump in the pile of laundry).  I mix dough with my kids (yes, it gets in their hair).  But we have fun, they learn things, and when (if?) they go to bed, I'm free to type. 

4. Plot all day. Bwhahaha...Okay, what I really mean is that often-rote mom work lets the brain wander.  I outline scenes in my head all day, or gnaw over a revision problem.  If I manage a quiet afternoon minute, I let the keyboard fly.  I also keep a notebook handy during the day, and if I can, jot down a few quick notes.

5. Keep your eyes open.  Maybe I like writing too much, but the last time a child vomited on me, I thought, "This sensory experience will come in handy in a scene one day."  As I cleaned him up, I tried to list words and phrases that described warm vomit best.  By the time I managed to clean myself up, I'd moved on to describing being soaked in cold vomit.  I don't know how much narrating my life helps, but it makes me feel like I'm always writing, even if I can't sit at a computer.

6. Enlist support.  Every time I hear someone talk about finding time to write, family support invariably comes up.  I'm exceedingly thankful to have a husband who tells me I can do this writing thing, even when I'm banging my head against the desk.  Making writing group every week isn't just my priority -- it's his, too.  Which is awesome in ten thousand ways.

Humans, from architects to entrepreneurs to teachers, are creative problem solvers.  Writers aren't any different.  When I first started writing, I thought I'd only pour creativity onto the page, but as it turns out, it takes creativity to find time to write, too.