His June 1 article on short story writing and selling.

I found his opinion and experience (and this is a man who whether you like his writing or not does sell) with becoming successful fascinating.

He says to actually follow Heinlein's rules. And I got to thinking. What if I had spent all the time I've spent editing already written stories writing new ones instead.

So what do you think?

 

For books... I can't imagine sending my first draft to an editor. Why? There isn't really a story there. Because of the amount of time and energy I put into a novel, I'd rather put in more time and energy to make it really work and increase the changes it will get picked up than spend that energy on a new novel. Maybe his novel first drafts are much neater, I don't know. He's also talking about a different time, I think--the mid 1980s.

So--who wants to make a bet with me? A short story every week!

[This message has been edited by annepin (edited July 30, 2008).]
 

I think I'd take you up on that. Just so long as you are comfortable reading my crappy first drafts.

For how long?

Anthony
 

Maybe I'll start a challenge in the writing challenges section. People can check in if they've written and submitted anything that week.

Of course, I guess I'm not entirely sold on his idea, either. I think there is stuff to be gained from getting crits and rewriting.

[This message has been edited by annepin (edited July 30, 2008).]
 

Anthony
 

I think the writing is the most important. It will help you build confidence in your own editing also.

 

It got really harried after a while. I managed 8 stories before I burned out. still, those first drafts are what I'm working on polishing now
 

Another thing to consider is creating a process that is both thorough and comfortable to you. It is good to hold yourself to goals and deadlines, But giving yourself unrealistic goals and deadlines can leave you disapointed in yourself unduly.

I have had some sucsess with the story per week thing, but before I started, I had compiled about eight story ideas that I wanted to develop, and created a plotting worksheet for each. I also had a weekly plotting workshop with some reliable and respected peers where we took turns brainstorming each others plot and characters.

Then I wouls spend the next two days drafting and that worked well for me. During longer or more complicated story weeks, I would give myself two weeks and write a flash piece to help me maintain the sense of accomplishement. I could probably write a flash a day if I tried, so I compensated with that.

But it really depends on the individual and how comfortable you are with the process. Also look at the process from different angles to help you approach your writing more methodically.
 

So I'm up for this. I'll sign on for a story a week.

No workshopping. Just writing.

Edit: And to start the process off I just finished and mailed a story to F&SF. He said start at the top. And getting rejections does not equal failure.

I must admit I re-read mine the next day, made some changes and ran it through autocrit and made a few more. But it was very close to what he said--about as close as I'm going to get. LOL

[This message has been edited by JeanneT (edited July 30, 2008).]

[This message has been edited by JeanneT (edited July 30, 2008).]
 

Weekly flash challenges. There is a critting component to it, but best of all is each Friday there's a new trigger for a NEW flash. And you have 90 minutes to write it (whenever you login to view the trigger, the timer starts.) Runs every week through Sunday night. Monday the stories are all posted. M-Tues the crits are in (short crits, highlights, general impressions, suggestions for what to work on when you have more than 90 mins to write, etc.) Voting is Weds-Thurs. If there are large numbers (>9 I believe) there are two groups and then there's a secondary voting for "best of the best" (one wins best flash in each group, then they're pitted against each other for best of best.)

Fantastic way to jump-start some short story writing. It's dizzying, but phenomenal. I don't participate as often as I'd like (the weekend schedule doesn't work as well for me, at least not right now) but for a while I was entering at least 2x/month and I have some incredible stories that have resulted. Some better than others, and a few pieces of complete drivel, but hey - I wrote!

Anyway, just a thought. The 90 min structure forces your internal editor to the curb. It's refreshing and terrifying, love it.
 

Annepin, are you still going to start a thread?

[This message has been edited by JeanneT (edited August 02, 2008).]
 

I do more picking at my stories now than I did then. For about a year or so (roughly that same year), I wrote rough draft as final copy and sent that out. (This year was also in the years before word processors came along.) I changed my mind about it when I got the stories back and saw all the mistakes I'd made just in grammar and spelling...

Now I'm a five-hundred-words-a-day writer. (I picked this up from Fred Pohl, who came up with a four-pages-a-day rule, but I didn't have the energy for that---my stuff probably spills out over two pages.) When I can keep it up---most of the time---the numbers add up enough to satisfy me.

(I do hope to reach the end of one story next week, unless things derail.)