Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Editorial Translation

This is topic Editorial Translation in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by RFLong (Member # 1923) on :

I'm sure this has come up before but cannot find the thread. I was trawling through some websites and found the following from Marion Zimmer Bradley which I thought was pretty interesting.

http://mzbworks.home.att.net/transed.htm

I'm sure some of you have read it already, but I hadn't so therefore...
On the principle that its good to share.

Posted by djvdakota (Member # 2002) on :

Good one.

Both encouraging and a bit disheartening.

One thing I wish she had included was some of the things she said to writers she finds worthy. Surely she gushed praise sometimes!

Moral: When a story is deserving of praise, GIVE IT!!

Posted by Kolona (Member # 1438) on :

So it's as we suspected....Ah well.

Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :

It seemed to me that this article came from a disillusioned man after realizing that so much of the slush was, in fact, not up to snuff. It sounded as if, up front, he believed that he would be reading tomes of well-written pieces from which it would be difficult to choose the best and then have the time to write a personal note to each other aspiring author to help them find new seed with their ideas.

Wake up call: Most of the stories that go through slugh are crap. The reason is that most people think they can write. It's amazing, but recent surveys have concluded that most Americans (by which I mean more than half) believe they could successfully write a novel if they tried.

I know better. I know I'm a terrible writer. I also know I'm darn good. I will continue to work at resolving these two issues as I send my aromatic crap to editors in the hopes that one will not realize how bad it is and publish it before someone clues them in to the truth.

Meanwhile, I will not attempt to interpret editor's rejections past saying that this story and that editor did not get along. Heck, the second best story I have written to date has now been rejected by nine editors and is sitting on a tenth's desk. As far as I'm concerned, the other nine just did not see the brilliance. Of course, if number ten takes it they still just didn't realize how bad it was.

(My best story to date, BTW, is currently at WOTF. This is the fourth market for it, mostly because I've sent it to venues that have taken their sweet time with it.)